Wild Storm: Laura's Story
by Sakura23
Summary: The Lunar Wolf Ranger thinks she's done saving the world. But when Lothor comes to conquer Earth, she will have to lead the next generation of Power Rangers on a mission to save Blue Bay Harbor. PRWFPRNS crossover. Ninja Storm season rewrite.
1. Prelude to a Storm

**Prelude to a Storm**

**Year: 2009**

**Exact place: Blue Bay Harbor University, Blue Bay Harbor, California**

Almost a week before my term paper on the history of Ancient Mesopotamia was scheduled to be turned in, I gathered all the notes I would need to write the 24 page essay and walked toward my dorm in the heart of Blue Bay University, intending to type the assignment up on my computer. Unlike my roommate, I hated to procrastinate when given assignments as intensive as this. The earlier the paper was done, the more free time I would have to go out on dates, ride horses, talk with Sensei Watanabe and his son Cameron, or hang out with my three new friends: Shane Clarke, Tori Hanson, and Waldo "Dustin" Brooks. Unfortunately my plan couldn't be put into action right away, because the moment I opened my door I found it occupied not only by my roommate but also 10 of her friends. And two of them were on the computer.

"What in the world is going on here?" I wanted to know in a loud voice. At once the room quieted a bit as everyone turned to look at me, and Hannah, that idiotic drama queen who roomed with me started whining.

"Oh they begged me to let them into our room, and I couldn't refuse!" she said in a dramatic high pitched voice that fell harshly upon my sensitive ears. Behind her some girls swooned while admiring a picture of Hunter Bradley and me riding horses on the beach.

"He is _so_ hot!" one of them, Kelsey, I believe, commented. I didn't like matching names to faces of people I do not like, so that's why I can only guess who Hannah's friends were. "I can't believe he's your boyfriend! Actually, _I_ want him. Could you please, please, please let me have a night out with Hunter, Laura, the next time he comes to visit us here at the University?"

"No, you may not." I answered. "I'm not going to be your matchmaker. Go find your own boyfriend, dude." With that said, I began to search through the closet for my ninja uniform, which was hidden behind my prom dress. Because the two girls sitting at the desk didn't look like they were going to get off the Internet soon, and the library was closed because it was Sunday night, I realized the only place where I would be able to get _any_ work done was in the basement of the Wind Ninja Academy. After changing in the bathroom, I then reentered the room and was attacked by a water balloon. Angry at Hannah for letting such unruly classmates into our dorm, I deflected the balloon by projecting a gust of wind using the palm of my hand before ninja streaking out of the building in a huff.

Ninja streaking is a very cool ability, one that I use a lot in order to get from one place to another, especially if Point A and Point B are very far apart. Basically you turn yourself into a colorful blur so you can bounce around faster than the human eye can follow. It was this ability I now used in order to get to my school. In just a minute I stood in front of a spectacular waterfall which served as the entrance and exit to the school. Calling this time on my inner ninja powers of water, I slowly made my way across the pond by walking upon the surface as if the liquid was solid ground, and it wasn't long until a portal opened up in front of me. I raised my right hand to widen the opening before letting the gate suck me through it.

Invisible but hot steam was still pouring out of my ears when I finally entered Ninja Ops in order to borrow Cam's computer for my report. However, my plans were foiled yet again when I discovered Sensei Kanoi Watanabe was currently having a conversation with his rival Sensei Omino from the Thunder Ninja Academy and thus couldn't be disturbed.

"Dude, this is so aggravating!" I hissed quietly, and prepared to leave, but Watanabe heard me. "Sorry for interrupting, Senseis." At this moment I bowed deeply to the two teachers before proceeding to run back up the steps of the secret room.

"Wait." I heard Omino call out, and I returned. "May I ask you a question?"

"Of course, you may ask me anything you want." I replied, and took a seat on the navy cushion upon the floor next to the low table when asked to do so. "Fire away."

"I want to know, young lady, why you chose the Air class. It is predominately male, is it not? Why wouldn't you want to choose the Water class, a predominately female ninja class?"

"I guess it's cooler than the Water class?" I replied with a shrug. "Though Air techniques are just as fascinating, so I'm a pupil in both classes."

"That's right." Said Sensei Watanabe with a soft smile. "And I'm considering the possibility of transferring her to _your_ school, Sensei Omino. The Thunder Ninja Academy's work load is a lot heavier than it is here at the Wind Ninja Academy, but Laura can handle it. She's a spunky little girl with lots of potential. What's more, I'll let you know now that she is a former Power Ranger. Last year in Turtle Cove City she helped protect the world with the Wild Force Rangers. You can see why we at the Wind Ninja Academy are proud to have her here."

"That's right, I _was_ the Lunar Wolf Ranger." I said proudly, and showed Omino the Lunar Caller strapped upon my wrist. Omino smiled before showing me a black rectangular box with the Thunder Ninja Academy symbol on the top of it (two lightning bolts inside a circle, one of which is facing up and the other facing down) Two beetle shaped morphers lay inside. "So, who are the lucky two boys who will get them eventually, Sensei?"

"I was thinking about giving these to Hunter and Blake in a few months' time." Said Omino in a serious voice, and I wanted to dance around for joy. My boyfriend was going to be a Power Ranger, so he could join me in the fight against evil! "The Thunder powers were always meant for them. The ancient scrolls have foretold this. I have just one other question: what brings you here to the Wind Ninja Academy today? Class is not in session."

"Oh yes, I forgot." I said, and showed the teachers my backpack with its many papers stuffed inside. "I am here to do a report on Ancient Mesopotamia. My roommate's currently having a party so I can't use my personal computer in the dorm. Hope Cam won't mind if his machine is, you know, taken for the night."

"I'll tell him about your situation, so go ahead and use it to your heart's content." Said Kanoi, and motioned toward the computer sitting against the far wall. "Now Sensei Omino, is there anything else you would like to discuss with me?"

2 weeks later…

On a fine Saturday that bode no imminent danger from the weather, I dropped off my friends at the beach, skate park, and motocross track and sat down to do some serious studying with a famous historian named Jacob Weinstein. Jacob, like me, was a history geek and loved everything to do with ancient civilizations. His best friend was, no surprises there, Mr. Chan, the curator of the Blue Bay Harbor Museum of Asian History.

"The Ancient Egyptians were cool people. They had those awesome pyramids and stuff, see. By the way, boy am I glad you could find time to see me in my office! Shall we talk a bit more about how religion shaped the Egyptian society five thousand years ago?"

"Oh no, I've got to go!" I yelped upon noticing it was almost five o' clock. "My friends and I are _so_ busted. I'll call you later, Mr. Weinstein, okay? Maybe after Spanish class tomorrow morning, when I'm eating lunch at the University."

"But we haven't—" Mr. Weinstein complained, but I insisted it was time for me to go.

"Sorry! Anyway, have I ever told you what a radical historian you are? No, great, because now you know I love you so much, dude. See ya!" Immediately after excusing myself from his presence, I rushed outside and made a dash for my car in Mr. Weinstein's garage.

_Blue Bay Harbor Beach_

"Victoria Hanson, if you don't get out of the water right now we're doomed!" I shouted at the pretty blonde surfer in blue trying to ride another wave. Notice I didn't use her shortened name, Tori, because I was too angry to call her that. "Sensei Watanabe is going to kill us if we are late again!"

"One minute!" Tori screamed back over the roar of the incoming wave. "It's the big one, and I'm not leaving till I break my previous record!" At that moment her dream of surfing the monster wave failed because I used my Air ninja powers to push the wave away from the beach. "Darn, there goes my wave. Okay, okay, let's go. Geez, you're so hard to please sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." I answered, and started walking toward my car. "Come on!"

_Skate Park_

Shane Clarke was in the middle of doing a cool trick on the half pipe when I came up to let him know it was time to go to ninja class. After seeing me, the Samoan kid got off the rail to talk to me, and that's when his friend ran over.

"Hey!" said the boy, whose name I did not know. "That was awesome, dude. _That's_ why you have tons of fans, Shane."

"Ha, ha!" said Shane. "I know. Say, I really nailed it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, that's great. Hey, want to hit that new rail?"

"Oh no, I can't." Shane's face instantly fell. "Gotta go. Have a class today, dude."

"Class?"

"Yeah, class. But I'll talk to you later, okay? Laura and I have to go now, or our teacher will have us cooked for dinner."

"Ha, ha, now _that_ was funny, Shane." I laughed as we walked back to my car. "Very funny indeed."

_Motocross Track_

"Figures Mr. Brooks would be here." I said to myself when I saw Dustin's motorbike come toward me. "He loves this place so much he cries if I don't drop him off here every single day. Hey Waldo, that's enough biking, dude!"

"Lap time's about two seconds off." Said Kelly after the boy slowed down to stop next to us, and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh sure. Whoo-hoo." I said this very unenthusiastically because it was now well after five o clock. "Hey Dustin, did you know it's thirty minutes after five?"

"Oh man, I am _so_ busted." Said Dustin, and noticed just how angry I looked. "I mean, _we're_ so busted. Sensei's gonna go wacko if we don't hurry up and get to school."

"Darn right he is. Now put your bike away and let's go."

"Belts on." I said to the trio once we were in my van. "Anyway, how could we be late every time? This wouldn't have happened even if I had actually planned it."

"That's because you're the reliable one." Said Shane as I was pulling out of the parking lot, and Dustin laughed in response.

"Huh. Explain that, mister."

"Well, in any group there are different kinds of people. Want to add to that, Dustin? Help me out here."

"Yeah, okay. Think of people like, um, the Power Rangers." Upon hearing that I snickered. You know why.

"Power Rangers?" Tori interrupted. "You must be joking."

"No, no, I'm not. There's always like, this mellow, reflective dude."

"Then there's the risk taker." Said Shane. "The adrenaline guy." Here he reached forward and twisted the rearview mirror to admire his black hair. "That would of course be me."

"Guys, I need to switch lanes now." I said, and twisted the mirror back to its original position. "Next time no touching anything up front, okay? That mirror is important to drivers, you know. It helps us see if we have enough room to change lanes and stuff. Now sit back in your seat before that police officer on my tail decides to give me a ticket for letting you fool around in a moving vehicle."

"Sorry."

"And lay off on the comic books." Tori added. "Power Rangers? Whatever!"

"Sorry!"

A half hour later we were out of Blue Bay Harbor and driving through a dense forest whose trees were so tall and the grass so thick Dustin hated to think about what kind of strange animals could be hiding here.

"Now just relax." I had to say to him because his nervousness was making everyone feel uneasy. "I know this place is creepy but at least—"

"I heard that." Shane interrupted, causing me to shoot him a very angry glare.

"You guys are so lame." Tori snorted, and that's when I opened the van doors while the car was still in the process of slowing down. "Hey, what's the big idea?"

"It's time for the three of you to get out of my car, that's what." I replied, and put the car in the 'parking' gear. After pulling the key out, I opened my own door. "Come on, dudes! We're late enough already."

A few minutes later, the four of us stood before a spectacular waterfall that was the entrance and exit to the Wind Ninja Academy. Happy to be finally here, Dustin rushed forward, only to be knocked down by a black blur that came out of nowhere. Startled, Tori turned to find out exactly what had pushed her friend down, and was pushed backwards by another black blur. Seconds later, Shane also hit the ground, and the black blurs turned into the other students of the Wind Ninja Academy. All shouted 'Ki-yah' in unison before dropping into defensive positions.

Having regained his footing, Shane then nodded to both Tori and Dustin, and together the three of them ripped off their outer clothing to reveal their ninja garb. Shane's uniform was trimmed in red, Tori's in blue, and Dustin in yellow. At this time I whipped out Cam's video camera to record the imminent battle, and shimmied up a tree to watch the ninjas duke it out in safety.

Tori's strategy was to lose her fellow students by running toward the waterfall. Because she was a Water student, she could run on water as if it was solid ground without slipping. Unfortunately for her the other Water students saw what she was doing and charged across the water too before launching themselves into the air just inches from Miss Hanson. Not prepared for this assault, Tori fell forward, then backward, and finally hit the water with a big splash. From my seat on the tree, I roared with laughter as she tried to brush her soggy hair out of her eyes.

Next I decided to film Dustin. He tried to attack his fellow Earth students by delivering them roundhouse kicks, but the older students were faster and easily dodged his offensive moves. Hoping to trip him up, two students made the kanji symbol for Earth in the air before diving into the ground and running toward him from below the surface (I knew where they were because white smoke coming out of the forest floor gave away their location).

"Not good." Dustin said, and at that moment the two students popped out of the ground like jack in the

boxes to attack him. Dustin countered, and then realized he could do something similar. He also made the Earth symbol in the air and pointed toward the ground: this produced yellow smoke that obscured him from view for a moment. Eventually the smoke cleared, and we all laughed when we saw Dustin had trapped himself in his own element and couldn't get out. "Pfffft! Now I'll never get the taste of dirt out of my mouth! Laura--!"

"No can do, buddy!" I called from the tree, and looked down to see a stolid Water student leaning against the trunk. Water students are predominately female but there are a couple of males in the class who don't want to have anything to do with Earth or Air. "Hey Omar! Where's Shane?"

"You will want to aim the camera over there." Said the Indian ninja. He pointed to the trees at the edge of a green meadow so I knew exactly where to look. "See, there he is. Now don't thank me, just film. Tomorrow we can present this video to Sensei Watanabe so he can see just how pathetic these three kids are."

"Hmm."

Through the camera, I could see Shane was currently battling his fellow Air students. He smirked, thinking three opponents would not be hard to defeat, but I secretly knew these older, more experienced students would trounce him quickly enough. As I watched, the ninja Shane had picked on launched himself into the air, and Shane followed his example. Then came the inevitable mid-air collision, and as I predicted, Dustin's childhood friend ended up hitting the ground with a loud but satisfying thud.

Having filmed everyone's unfortunate battles, I chose that moment to shut off the video camera and hop back onto the ground, because in the distance I could hear a flying raptor shriek 'Sensei is coming, Sensei is coming'.

"Let go of me, man!" Dustin protested as two Earth students roughly pushed him toward his equally crestfallen friends, and I snorted while yanking Tori into position. The older ninjas only laughed in reply, and at that moment an eagle screeched loudly. "Let me guess, we're in trouble."

"Big trouble." Tori mumbled.

"Aw man!" This came from a very unhappy Shane.

A second later, the eagle landed, and transformed into a disappointed looking Sensei Watanabe, head teacher of the Wind Ninja Academy. At the same time Dustin tried to cower behind Shane, but I kicked him back into place with a light tap of my foot. One of the Earth students then came up to help me onto a black horse whose mane had been decorated with red, blue and yellow ribbons. The ladybug like symbol of the Wind Ninja Academy could clearly be seen on its tack. Horses were not as prevalent at the Academy as they were in the past, but Sensei Watanabe still kept animals in the stable, because traditionally all teachers get a steed. I wasn't a teacher, but as a favorite student here at the Academy, I had privileges.

"That's enough for today." Sensei said after a moment of silence, and the other students ninja streaked away with a loud 'hi-yah'.

"So, how did they do, in your point of view?" I asked sarcastically, only to be silenced by a glare from Sensei. Watanabe then turned to face his remaining students, who all bowed their heads in shame when he looked at them.

"Tori. Shane. Dustin. I am very disappointed. I'll expect a visit from you so that we may discuss your _**lack of commitment**_ to your ninja training."

"Yeah, okay." I heard Dustin mutter while yanking a twig out of his hair. "Ow! Hey, where did Sensei go?"

"He went to school." I said, pointing to the waterfall. "And we had better follow him. But first, you guys had better run home and clean up."

"Well that wasn't so bad, huh?" Dustin added. I then came over to help him pick the rest of the twigs out of his hair, and the others turned to glare at him. "What? It wasn't. Ow! Okay, I'll tell you what. You guys can blame this all on me."

Tori slowly smiled. "Okay. We will."

Sensei was still peeved when we went to visit him on the training grounds an hour later, but he did not yell because he hated to do so. Instead he gave us a lecture, and as he spoke, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Man, these students were so dumb. I still don't understand why I never fail to pick them up for school each and every day, and get myself a bad attendance record as well.

"You have been students at the Wind Ninja Academy for nearly a year, and yet you fail to see the importance of punctuality. I would suggest you find a way to change that before you return tomorrow. Otherwise I will have no choice but to expel you."

Shane instantly looked like he was going to cry because his dignity was at stake here. "Wait, you can't!" He cried out with a voice that threatened to break. I noticed this, and tittered loudly.

"Aw Shane, is that a tear coming out of your eye? Come here, let me give you a hug. Sister Laura will have you feeling better in no time." Without his permission I rode over to the Samoan teen and reached down to give him a reassuring squeeze from the saddle.

"It's not anything." Shane protested while prying my fingers off of him, and Dustin pasted a grin on his face before the boys returned their attentions to Sensei, who continued.

"You all have great potential. It would be a shame to waste that. Now go. You must have other studies."

"Thank you." I told the teacher, and watched as the three kids bowed to him before leaving. I stayed behind on the horse, and was soon joined by Cameron Watanabe, who came galloping up on a white stallion decorated with only green ribbons. Green was his favorite color, he always wore at least one article of clothing that had a splotch of green on it. In fact, today's outfit consisted of a green polo shirt and gray pants. "Oh, hello Cam. Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon to you too." Cam replied, reining in his horse the moment he got within a foot of me and Sensei. "Anyway, I don't know why you put up with them."

"Well then Cameron, I suppose that's why I'm the Sensei, and you're the Sensei's son." Sensei Watanabe said with a smile. But his smile quickly faded when he looked up at the sky and noticed a purple thundercloud heading toward us.

"What's wrong Dad?"

Meanwhile, more than a thousand miles above Earth, a spaceship slowly drew itself closer to our lovely green planet with its lovely nature full of grace and majesty. Inside, an evil space ninja wearing a horned black mask chuckled evilly as he began formulating plans to destroy both the Wind and Thunder Ninja Academies and get himself two evil Power Rangers who would do his bidding without question.

The next day, Shane had his handy red alarm clock set to four-thirty so we could get to the Wind Ninja Academy earlier than usual, and thus avoid the possibility of being expelled from school. It was also a work day, but nobody bothered to tell Kelly we were going to be getting off our late afternoon shift before it usually ended because Dustin was too scared to say anything. He obviously didn't want to make our boss unhappy, so Tori suggested running flat out the door the moment the clock rang. This would spare us the wrath of Miss Holloway.

4:30 came soon enough, since our shift didn't start till 1 in the afternoon. When the alarm rang, Dustin was screwing something on his bike, Shane and Tori were watching skateboarding videos, and I was giving a ton of Moto X papers to a Factory Blue member who wanted to sign himself up for 20 races all at once.

"You're crazy, dude, you know that?" I asked the young man, who only smiled in reply. "Yep, definitely crazy. Anyway, thank you for stopping by Storm Chargers. Come back anytime!"

"Come on!" Dustin abruptly yelled, and yanked me toward the direction of the door just as I finished talking with the motocross enthusiast.

"Dustin!" Miss Holloway hadn't missed us running out from under her nose at all. This was quite the opposite of what we had thought would happen. "You aren't going to leave me here to clean up shop!"

"Sorry! Have I ever told you what a cool boss you are? Bye Kelly!" And he dragged me out the store without further ado. Once outside, I rushed into my van and heard doors slam as the others piled in as well. We then hit the road, while Kelly looked out the window and rolled her eyes.

"Man, soon they'll all wish I was able to give out detentions!"

"And these continued atmospheric disturbances has the weather service baffled." The radio announcer said loudly as I was driving down Lionel Avenue for the fourth time that day in our hurry to get to the Wind Ninja Academy.

"So are we on time?" Dustin asked, and I nodded while stopping before a traffic light.

"Yes, we're early. This is a good thing." At that moment the light turned green and I made a left turn onto Griffin Lane. Almost immediately I noticed an old, sad looking couple and their overheated car on the shoulder, and stopped my vehicle to help the senior citizens get back on the road. "Hey, these guys look like they need some young heroes who know a lot about car engines. Dustin, get the tool box. Tori, you grab the wrenches. And Shane, keep an eye on the time."

The Samoan protested almost instantly, but the others did as they were told and began to rush over to the couple, who immediately started praising them before anything was even done. "Dude, this is crazy. We can't stop."

"We can't just leave them here. What if something happens to them? That purple thundercloud over the mountains in the distance doesn't bode well for Blue Bay Harbor, ya know. I've seen worse back in Turtle Cove, but this is just as nuts."

"All I know is, if we're late again today something's definitely going to happen to us—"

"Two minutes, dude!" This was Dustin trying to calm his friend down.

"—And it won't involve fun and fabulous prizes!"

Dustin's estimate of two minutes was way off: by the time we finished the repairs on Mr. and Mrs. Oliver's car it was way past five. This meant we were late, again.

"Oh boy." I said with a huff after saying goodbye to the old couple, and opened the door so the boys could return to their seats in the back of the van. Tori returned to her own seat next to mine, and just as I was pulling back onto the road Dustin piped up.

"Are you sure we're in trouble?" he asked. "Because there just might be a small chance Sensei's own alarm clock failed to ring. Maybe he won't even notice we're late today."

"He's a ninja master, dude." Shane answered haughtily. "They don't oversleep."

"Really?"

Wind Ninja Academy, 15 minutes later…

The moment we stepped through the portal in the waterfall all of us were instantly buffetted by a strong wind that was probably near hurricane strength, judging by Cam's broken anemometer on the ground next to a tall tree whose leaves were being blown off their branches. While covering my face with an arm to shield myself from flying soil, leaves, and sharp wood splinters, I looked up to find a huge purple transparent tornado sucking my beloved school and everyone in it into the sky.

"Something's attacking the school!" Shane cried out over the roar of the gale as we watched the Academy start to distinigrate before our eyes. "This is bad, people!"

"Oh man, I am too young to die!" I wailed in a high pitched dramatic voice that had won me a place in the Drama Club in Blue Bay University, and clung to a tree trunk to prevent myself from flying away with the rest of the Ninja Academy. "This is so not happening!"

"Look out!" Tori yelled at this time. As if on cue, the Earth shook, the rest of the school disappeared along with the tornado, and we all fell down onto the hard twig covered forest floor. Once all was calm once more, Shane crawled over to the edge of the cliff and looked down with a look of disbelief on his face.

"It's gone!" He finally cried out after a moment of silence. "All gone!" He was right, of course. All that was left of the Wind Ninja Academy was a big crater in the ground, a few disoriented horses, and a charred drawing of the Animarium Princess Shayla had found for me in the Temple of the Wild Zords.

_Lothor's Spaceship_

"Okay, now that the ninja schools have been wiped out I'm going to get the Northern Hemisphere and you'll get the the Southern Hemisphere." Marah said to Kapri as they were watching the captured ninja students in their bubble prisons cry and scream for help. "That's good, right?"

"No, no, you get Antarctica and I'm getting California!" Kapri immediately interjected. The two began to squabble after this, but were interrupted when their uncle Lothor burst into the room with his samurai general, Zurgane. Seeing the nieces instantly caused Lothor's cold blood to heat up for a moment, and he started to berate them.

"Quiet, you bumbling idiots!" he snapped. "Or I'll throw you both off my ship. Zurgane, see for yourself why I never suggest working with family."

"Sorry Uncle." The girls chorused, and waved to the ninja students as they were tossed toward the cargo bay in the back of the ship. Lothor then crossed the room and sat down upon his throne.

"Now where was I? Zurgane, please remind me."

"The final phase of your plan to conquer Earth, sir." The samurai-with-no-mouth-and-only-one-gold-eye replied with a stately bow.

"Of course. Let us now proceed to split the planet in half, or three fourths, or one sixteenths. Or whatever fraction we want, for that matter. Shall we, ladies?"

"Uh, what's a fraction?" Marah almost instantly asked, and was given a scowl in reply. "Oh sorry, it must have been a stupid question, huh?"

"Well duh!" Kapri said. She then pulled her sister aside when Zurgane brushed past them in his hurry to deliver some news from Lothor's other general, the green skinned Choobo.

"Sir. It appears there are four students from the Wind Ninja Academy still unaccounted for. One of them is a former Power Ranger so we have to keep an close eye on that pupil."

"How about we destroy them all instead? This would be so much easier, don't you think? General Zurgane, ready the laser beams. I want nothing left standing, you hear? Nothing!"

_Meanwhile, back on Earth…_

"And here you can see what is left of the library." I said to the others while picking up a charred scroll from the scorched earth so the others could see it. A horse then chose that moment to neigh, and Tori ran off to capture the beasts before they could canter away confused and upset. Once she returned with the animals, a rock pile not too far away from where we were standing began to fall apart, revealing a dirt covered hand and a bit of a green sleeve.

"It's Cam!" Shane cried out, and rushed over to be the first rescuer. The rest of us quickly ran over to assist him, and Cam coughed as we freed him. The Sensei's son then tried to explain what had happened while we were gone, but his story was interrupted when suddenly a huge laser beam from outer space came shooting toward us. Quickly Shane and Dustin each wrapped an arm around Cam and helped him run away from the many laser beams which followed the first. Tori latched onto my hand so I could help her, and together we followed the boys toward the giant hole in the ground which was all that was left of the Academy. Upon sliding into the crater, the Sensei's son broke free from us and rushed over to a trap door. He proceeded to yank it open before motioning for us to get in the tunnel.

"Get in here, Shane Clarke!" I had to yell when everyone else followed Cam but not Shane, who had turned his face skyward in an effort to see if this new danger had passed. I grabbed the student by his collar about the same time I said his name out loud and after we had gotten in I slammed the trapdoor behind us. One last laser beam shook the ground as Cam led the way deeper into the hidden chamber

ahead.

Once underground, Cam stopped to point and show my friends around. "To your right is a portal leading to a floating sky island called the Animarium, and to your left is a tunnel leading to Ninja Ops, a secret underground room Dad uses to hold his meetings with Senseis from other ninja schools. It also serves as Laura's homework room, my bedroom, and living room. Now don't ask any questions because I can't answer them. Just so you know, this place was built for an emergency. And now it's about to be used to its full potential."

Dustin scratched his head at this time. "Okay dude, that's cool and all, but we simply must know more. What exactly _is_ the Animarium, and why are we here?"

I grinned at this while Cam pushed deeper into the tunnel without bothering to light up the way. The ninjas protested because of this, so the computer geek retraced his steps before handing everyone a flashlight. Now that everyone could see, walking was easier. "I'll answer that, since Cam doesn't look like he wants to reveal any secrets. Answer to question number one: The Animarium is what's left of the once grand kingdom of Animaria, which used to be present day California. Humans and animals lived in harmony in this land, and all respected the importance of nature. Then the evil Master Org arrived and started to destroy everything in his path, so the ancient warriors—the precessors of the Wild Force Power Rangers—lifted their Princess and the sacred Temple of the Valley of the Wild Zords into the sky so evil could not reach it. You'll all get to see the Animarium eventually, and meet Princess Shayla personally as a result, so don't worry about that. As for your second question Dustin, we're here to see if Sensei Watanabe's okay. In times like these, he promised he would meet us here in Ninja Ops if something like this happened."

"Thank you so much for revealing all I didn't want these kids to know just yet." Cam's sarcastic voice snapped the moment I finished explaining. "It figures you would ruin everything, Laura."

"Oh be quiet." I shot back. "They deserved to know anyway. Open the door." Cam proceeded to do so, and the portal decorated with a huge symbol of the Wind Ninja Academy lifted up to reveal the familiar room I spent time in when my dorm back at school got too noisy or crowded. The others then gasped as they took in the state of the art equipment in the room, as well as the neat low table, the color coded cushions, and the blue wall panels with awe in their eyes.

"Is this some big secret?" Shane wanted to know a moment later, when the initial shock had worn off and the trio started to come into the room with the horses in tow. Cam then opened the far right wall panel to reveal 4 horse stalls, and Tori led the animals into the spaces, which were clean and tidy. Fresh hay and cool water excited the horses, who quickly broke free from their handler and cantered into the stalls without guidance. Once in, they all began to loudly munch on the food before them, and it was at this time that Cam turned to answer Shane.

"Yes, Shane, it's like some big secret." He said sarcastically. Man, does he have to be Mr. Wise Guy every time? Geez. After working with the tech geek for so long, I was starting to become annoyed by his remarks, which were almost always cynical, even when he was in a good mood.

"But sometimes even the best kept secrets must be revealed, Cam." Sensei's voice suddenly said, and we all turned to see a little guinea pig dressed in a tiny duplicate of Sensei Watanabe's customary clothes on a pushcart that was slowly making its way toward us. Even the horses were curious and threw up their heads when they heard their master's voice.

Dustin was the first to comment on this strange turn of events. "Whoa!" he cried out, and elbowed Shane, who frowned.

"Hey, uh, that big rat sounds just like Sensei."

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't really look like him though, huh? I mean except for the clothes."

"My father is not a rat." Cam immediately snapped. At the same time I went to the cabinet in the far left corner of Ninja Ops and began to sift through the things on the shelves. "He's a guinea pig. And he's stuck."

"Stuck?" Tori asked, her face showing that she was just as confused as Dustin was.

"Yes Tori, stuck. Observe." And with that Sensei Guinea Pig did a little backflip so that he landed upon the computer Cam had programmed to hold vital Wind Ninja Academy information. Immediately the screen showed a little movie of Lothor destroying the Wind Ninja Academy and Sensei's transformation into a rodent. "This is Lothor. Once a great ninja, he was banished from the earth when his hunger for power turned him to the dark side. When our energy fields collided in our last battle, I was transformed into what you see before you. Now he has returned and has brought an army who will do everything to take our planet for their own. Unless they are stopped!"

"And who's going to be dumb enough to try and stop that crazy dude?" Dustin wanted to know after this history lesson, and Sensei turned to face me. "Good question, Dustin. Laura, have you found the morphers? If so, please bring them here. We have to distribute them now."

"Uh, no?" I called back. "I mean, hang on a moment. The box is currently hidden underneath a pile of last year's final exams. Gimme one second so I can dig it out before we proceed to solve the equation." This is a reference to the fact that distribution is one way of solving an Algebra problem.

"You're not serious, are you?" Cam immediately interjected with a wave of his hand toward the troublesome trio. "I mean, those guys are so lame!" One of the horses suddenly snorted when he heard this, and Cam gave him a look. "No, not you, Silver Moon! I was talking to Shane, Dustin, and Tori." I laughed at this, and the satisfied equine reburied his nose in his hay. Unlike me, Cam could not understand animals, but the horses had been with us all long enough to know Cam's cynical personality. So they didn't bother to cause trouble in his presence, though on Valentine's Day last year one of them snatched the cowboy hat he owned off his head and threw it into the lap of a young woman in the local park in an failed attempt to get him a girlfriend.

"It is time, Cam, and that is something none of us can deny." Sensei insisted, and I strode over with a polished wooden octangonal box whose cover was decorated with the Wind Ninja Academy and Power Ranger Wild Force animal totem symbols.

"That's right. Now guys, these are your brand new Power Ranger Wind morphers." I told the trio, and opened the container so my fellow ninja students could see them. These morphers were basically long rectangular wrist communicators that came with a red, blue, or yellow Power Disc containing the powers of Air, Water, and Earth.

"Oh yeah!" Dustin took one look at the devices and clapped Shane on the back before picking up the yellow morpher. "I always knew there were Power Rangers. One look at Laura on our first day here immediately confirmed my suspicions, and now I'm going to be just like her! We all are, for that matter. This totally rocks, dude!"

"Yeah, right." Tori answered, and picked up the blue morpher. Shane took the last one with a frown, and Cam closed the box after taking it out of my hands. The newbies then proceeded to strap their morphers onto their wrists, and as they all started to admire their new devices, Sensei introduced them all one by one while I ran back to the cabinet to find another box.

"Dustin, child of Earth, true to your heart, you will have the powers of the Yellow Wind Ranger. Tori, fluid and graceful like the water, you will be the Blue Wind Ranger. And Shane, reaching for the stars, you will command the powers of the Red Wind Ranger. Together you three symbolize hope for Blue Bay Harbor. From this moment on, you will all be known as the Ninja Storm Power Rangers, protectors of the galaxy and defenders of the Earth." There was a grand moment in which all three of them stood there proudly, and then it all fell apart with Dustin's question of "hey, does this thing have any games or what?"

"No, it doesn't have any games." Tori immediately answered. "Where's the switch?"

"Hey, hey, dudes..." Shane also said, and Cam groaned loudly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Guardians of the Earth." He said, and walked over to bury his face in the neck of Blazing Lion—a chestnut gelding I had named after Cole Evans—and pretend to cry.

"What's that?" Tori asked, pointing to the multicolored orbs in my hands. "Are they for us?"

I nodded. "Yes. These are animal crystals that formerly belonged to my Wild Force teammates. Now I pass them on to you. Tori, I now entrust you with the Shark and Giraffe animal crystals. Shane, the Falcon is yours, and Dustin, you will be in charge of taking good care of the Bears as well as the Rhino and Armadillo. I will hold on to my Wolf, Hammerhead, and Alligator, as well as the Elephant and Deer."

"Oh, and one more thing." Cam's father said in his wise guinea pig voice as the Rangers pocketed their new crystals into their ninja uniforms. "The call to morph is 'Ninja Storm, Ranger Form'. Now go, Lothor's army is attacking."

"Lothor's what is attacking?" They cried out, and looked at the computer screen to see ugly foot soldiers at the rock quarry bouncing around like kangaroos. They looked dumb, but what grossed me out the most was the fact that these Kelzaks had no faces. Even if they could see, hear, and speak, I saw no orifices or anything that might allow them to use the five senses normally. Once he was sure the trio had forseen the danger to Blue Bay Harbor, Sensei pointed toward the door, and the new Wind Rangers ninja streaked out to follow his instructions.

The Rangers arrived at the rock quarry and were about to take on the monster whose name was very appropriate for his face: Blue Face, when I suddenly realized there was one teensy problem: two of them, sans Dustin, had forgotten the morphing call!

"Ninja Storm, Ranger Form?!" Cam yelled out sarcastically by my side, and at that moment, as if the Rangers could hear him, they suddenly remembered the words.

"Okay dudes, watch and learn!" Dustin shouted out with glee, and raised his right arm and two fingers into the air to commence the morphing sequence. "Ninja Storm, Ranger form! Ha! Power of Earth!" At the word 'ha', Dustin extended his left arm and spun the Power Disk upon his morpher. He then turned into the Yellow Wind Ranger, and shook his arms up in the air for joy.

"Woo-hoo!" He laughed loudly. "Yeah baby, yeah! Haha! Well, I guess no one's laughing at the comic book geek now, are they?"

"That's very nice Dustin." Tori observed, and she and Shane copied his movements. After morphing, they shouted out 'Power of Water' and 'Power of Air' respectively before turning to face their enemies.

Back at Ninja Ops, I watched as my friends slashed the Kelzacks with their ninja swords, blasted the foot soldiers while running on water, tried out their hang-gliders, and correctly performed a Earth trick. Kelzacks went boom all over, prompting Cam to high five me every time he saw an explosion.

"Good job!" I cheered, and decided to dial Shane's communicator using my Lunar Caller. "Hey guys, it's me, Laura. Now that you've got Blue Face all to yourselves, try out those new weapons Cam and I got for you."

"Hawk Blaster, fired up!" Shane replied, whipping out a hawk shaped gun from out of nowhere.

"Sonic Fin, sound off!" Tori yelled, holding up a blue megaphone shaped weapon.

"Lion Hammer, ready to roar!" Dustin finally finshed, and held up his own weapon.

"Ooh, I'm so scared!" Blue Face sarcastically taunted the group, and from his cozy chair in outer space Lothor's face turned red.

"Power Rangers?" he snarled loudly. "Nobody told me there would be Power Rangers!"

In the safety of the Ninja den, Cam whooped and I cheered as the Rangers used their weapons to intimidate Blue Face, who fell on his face twice in the assualt. We then saw the three put their weapons together and blast the monster to bits with a huge fireball from the Storm Striker.

"Thanks for stopping by!" Shane yelled out after the explosion, and his childhood friend Dustin laughed. The three new Rangers then opened their visors so I could see their happy faces.

"Now that...was awesome!" he cried, and grinned from ear to ear before grasping Shane's hand and pumping it in joy. "Laura, did we do this okay?"

"You guys were awesome." I answered. "Now come back to Ninja Ops so Sensei and I can talk to you."

"Later days, dude!" Shane told the burning chunks of monster flesh, and did a little victory dance on the battlefield with his teammates before obeying my command and ninja streaking back to our base.

Dustin came back looking all excited. The others were also happy, but none of them were as enthusiastic as he was, judging by the looks on each of their faces.

"I told you, I told you Power Rangers were real! And you were like 'nah, it's not true, it's an urban legend, man!'" He laughed, and put his helmet down upon the low table as he said this.

"Nah, it wasn't me!" Shane tried to say. "It was Miss Fluid Water babe over here. She was the one who denied Power Rangers even existed in the first place, remember?"

"Okay, it was me." Tori admitted with a smile. At this time, Cam felt an headache coming on and asked for some tea, which I ran off to prepare. As if to protest that they needed something too, the horses' leader, Silver Moon, whinnied loudly, and I laughed before telling him I would give him an apple as soon as I finished getting the tech guy's tea.

"You did very well today." Sensei said after the Rangers had finished celebrating their first victory over evil. "I congratulate you all, but there will be more battles in the future, so from tomorrow onward we shall prepare for the unexpected by undergoing a special training program I perfected with Laura should this kind of event occur. Remember, the future is in your hands, Power Rangers."

"And don't forget there's a field trip tomorrow, so come here as soon as the sun rises in the morning." I said. "Bring all your animal crystals with you. Not to mention a notebook. You _will_ be taking notes on the history of Animaria so you can appreciate what the Ancient Warriors did for their country long ago."

Dustin's happy face instantly fell flat. "Dude, you're not serious. This is like ninja class all over again. I take it there will be a quiz on all this stuff afterwards?"

I nodded, and the others groaned when this all sank in. "All right, all right, I won't give you all a quiz. But _do_ pay attention to Princess Shayla as she tells you her story. This will count as a grade for this year, despite the fact that class won't resume until we've rescued those poor classmates of ours from the grasp of evil Lothor."

More groans followed this announcement. From his new stall, Silver Moon snickered in his horsey way as the Rangers bowed to Sensei and proceeded to go home. He found the antics of the three Wind Rangers quite amusing, and was eager to find out what would happen the next day.


	2. There's No I in Team

There's No I In Team

Shane was the first one to come down to Ninja Ops early the next morning so we could travel to the Animarium in time for Princess Shayla's grand telling of the legend of Animaria. With a backpack slung over one shoulder and a pen tucked behind his right ear, the Air ninja looked more like a scholar than a highly trained martial artist. This amused Cam, who couldn't help but remark how school looked like it was back in session. From my place next to Windstorm, the white horse Cam had rode around the school grounds yesterday, I agreed. "Yes, you look quite prepared for school today, Shane."

"Yeah. Hey, wait, you're not upset anymore, right? You came in earlier this morning screaming about how that rude boyfriend of yours dumped you. Are you _sure_ you're okay now, Laura?"

I nodded. "Yes Shane, I'm fine. Hey, where's Dustin and Tori? Don't tell me I have to drive out there and find them, dude."

"Last I checked, Dustin was hopping into Tori's van due to the fact that the crowd of people around Storm Chargers was too thick for them to ninja streak out without being seen." Shane said when we both turned to him for an explanation. He then turned to Sensei, who was inspecting the wooden flute I had neglected to play for the Deer Zord for almost a year already. The little guinea pig briefly looked up to see the Red Wind Ranger coming over, but said nothing. "Hey, what's that? Some sort of flute?"

"It _is_ a flute." Cam replied, and at that moment the others came through the open door of Ninja Ops. Like Shane they were prepared with notebooks and pens, but unlike him, both Dustin and Tori were not wearing their ninja uniforms. Instead they were both wearing short blue jeans and a T-shirt dyed in their respective Ranger colors. Tori had even tied her hair up in a ponytail and put on a necklace with a little dolphin pendant on it to look presentable. "Better late than never, I suppose. Now that we're all here, head out to the portal, guys. I'll join you later."

The Rangers took one look at him before exiting the room and heading for the other tunnel.

"Wow, it's a jungle out here!" Dustin cried out the moment we stepped through the portal and onto the stone steps leading to the Animarium, the home of Princess Shayla and the Wild Zords. "Is this cool or what, dudes?"

"It's amazing." Tori added, looking just as surprised as Dustin was. Beside her, Shane simply said 'whoa' as he followed me up to the picnic area just outside the Temple of the Wild Zords.

Princess Shayla had been expecting us, for she was already standing by the giant lion statue instead of hiding in the sacred pool. She turned when we came up, and smiled when I closed the distance between us. "Oh Laura, welcome back!"

"Yeah." I answered. "It _has_ been a while, hasn't it? Shayla, come meet my fellow classmates from the Wind Ninja Academy. Shane, Dustin, Tori, this is Princess Shayla, Guardian of the Wild Zords and Wild Force's former mentor. Princess Shayla, these guys are Shane, Dustin, and Tori." I pointed to each student in turn, and they all bowed deeply to her to show their respect before choosing their seats on the benches next to the picnic table.

"Hello, friends." Shayla responded with open arms once they had settled and opened their notebooks. Pens clicked as she continued. "I am Princess Shayla, and this is the Animarium. Now, what would you like to know?"

"How about starting with the legend of Animaria?" I suggested from my seat on the edge of the sacred pool. "The Rangers need to listen to that first, before we discuss anything else."

"Oh my." Princess Shayla's eyes widened when she noticed the Wind morphers on the teens' wrists for the first time. "Forgive me, I didn't know that. Well, all is well then. It is nice to see others who also hold the Power."

"I'll also have you know the animal crystals that used to belong to the Wild Force Rangers are now in their possession. They'll benefit from this transfer of power in time, I'm sure of it. Now tell us the story, Princess. Don't leave out a single detail."

"Yes, please." Tori said politely, and turned to face the boys. "And you two had better listen closely so Laura doesn't change her mind about not giving us a quiz. You may recall this is a participation grade that will count for this year."

"Of course, of course." Dustin replied, and Shane sighed as he scribbled 'The Legend of Animaria' at the top of the clean page in front of him. "Go on, dude—ow, Tori!—I mean Princess."

Princess Shayla was more than happy to recount this tale, but as she began to speak, she put on a sad expression. The memories were obviously painful ones, and even I was moved by her appearance. From my seat on the rim of the sacred pool basin, I started acting all dramatic. "Man, and I promised myself I wasn't going to cry!"

"It is sometimes hard to face the past, but one must always think of a better future." Sensei suddenly said from out of nowhere. This caused everyone to look up in alarm, and Dustin's eyes widened when he saw our guinea pig teacher poke his head out of my pocket and hop onto Shayla's shoulder.

"Who are you?" Shayla asked, and Sensei gave a little bow.

"I am Sensei Kanoi Watanabe, head teacher at the Wind Ninja Academy, ma'am." He replied. "I am the mentor for the Ninja Storm Power Rangers. Please, forgive me for interrupting the lesson. Do continue. Things were just starting to get…interesting, I should say."

"Thank you. A long, long time ago—three thousand years to be exact—there existed a peaceful paradise where beautiful plants grew. Animals and humans coexisted side by side: everyone lived in harmony! This, was the kingdom of Animaria! Humans and animals honored each other, and everyone respected the importance of nature." Princess Shayla paused at this time for dramatic effect, and I chose that moment to interrupt.

"Okay, you'll want to write that down, people. The fact that everyone respected nature and lived in harmony is very important."

"Whatever." I heard Shane mutter, causing me to shoot him a look of pure disgust. "This is not interesting at all." He yawned after this.

"Okay, just for that I'll make up a quiz for you." I answered. "No matter how uninteresting it is, do listen up, Mr. Clarke! I apologize for their rudeness, milady. Please continue, Princess."

"There was nothing but joy and beauty in all our lives. But then it was suddenly shattered when a great evil emerged from underground, sending destruction across the land! _He_ was Master Org. He attacked nature and humanity alike with his vile toxins. The five Ancient Warriors fought bravely against the evil Orgs, allowing me to escape with the help of my protector."

"That would be Merrick Baliton, the former Wild Force Silver Ranger whose powers I now possess. Write that down." Groans could be heard from the trio as they wrote down this note.

"He took me to the Temple in the Valley of the Wild Zords. Here, protected by the five animal guardians, I entered a long suspended sleep—"

"Those guardians would be the Blazing Lion, Surging Shark, Soaring Eagle, Iron Bison, and Noble Tiger. Again, have that rooted in your brains, Rangers." More groans.

"—Waiting for the time when the world would need us once again. Then, the Ancient Warriors lifted the entire valley up into the sky, creating the safe haven called the Animarium, which you all are currently on today. Finally, these brave men destroyed the Master Org, and entombed the remaining leaders of the Orgs where they remained, until last year." The morose Princess now looked at me, and as if on cue everyone else turned their attentions to me. And so I finished the story, but not before glaring at Dustin, who after all this time, had simply scribbled illegible notes in his notebook. Quickly I made a mental note to give him a quiz too, just to see how much he could recall mentally.

"And with the rise of the Orgs, the Princess and the Power Animals were awakened to fight for the Earth. And the animals each chose one of the Wild Force Power Rangers to be the warriors to fight against the evil. As the lion is king of the jungle, so is his chosen Ranger…" Here I nodded at Shane before tossing him the Lion animal crystal, "the leader of the team."

"Now I have two Power Animals I can summon?" Shane wanted to know, and I nodded.

"Yes. For now. The Falcon Zord will choose a new Ranger in time, so eventually you won't be its partner anymore. But the Lion…he certainly admires you Shane."

It was at this time that the portal opened again, and we all turned to see Cam running toward us with his laptop under one arm and Dustin and Tori's ninja uniforms neatly folded under the other.

"Hey." He called out. "It's time for some training. Let's give Princess Shayla a demonstration by testing out this virtual reality world program I've perfected."

"Sounds cool." Shane said, and put on his hood while the others proceeded to take their ninja uniforms and run off into the Temple in order to change upon agreeing with Cam's plan. "I can't wait to get started. All this writing is—"

I glared at him mid-sentence when I heard that dastardly comment come out of his mouth.

"Oh, my bad. Sorry Laura."

Blue Bay Harbor Motocross Track

Hunter Bradley was still wearing an angry expression on his face when he drove his large pickup into the motocross track parking lot.

"That Laura Delainy really gets on my nerves sometimes." He growled, causing his younger adopted brother to give him a funny look. "Did…something happen between the two of you?" Blake asked inquisitively as he and Hunter got out to unload their dirt bikes. "Your relationship was going so well. Yet now you want to break up with her?"

"Yes. I just can't shake the fact that she knows the guy who killed our parents. You know who I mean, bro."

"Aw come on, give her a chance." Blake grinned. "She's bound to be just as upset as you are right now, so—"

"So nothing. If you see her at Storm Chargers or anywhere here in Blue Bay, you can give her a message that says 'we're through', dude."

"I said, come on! You guys have only been going out for a month. What does the Wind Ninja Academy have to do with her, anyway? Your relationship should not revolve around who she may be associated with. You want love, you have got to _give_ love first. Don't let little things like murderers and rival schools break up this wonderful friendship that one day may lead to marriage."

"Don't…go there. We're not infatuated…at least, not yet."

"All right. Now don't you bite my head off. I was just trying to give you some advice, and if you don't like it, say so in a polite and courteous manner."

At this time a group of fan girls rushed up to greet the two of them, and Blake and Hunter were mobbed by females who squabbled over each other for a chance to help them bring the bikes onto the track. As the brothers were escorted to the racecourse, the leader of the fan club, Cynthia, noticed just how peeved the older Bradley looked and made note of it out loud.

"Aw, did that mean girlfriend of yours dump you or something, Hunter? We're so sorry! Come girls, shall we?" The others nodded, and promptly burst into song:

_Please excuse us mister, we don't want to bother, we only want to know. All of us are neighbors, so we're very curious, why do you look so low?_

_Give us all the lowdown, did you reach a showdown with your last lady love? _

_Give us all the lowdown, do you feel a let-down, 'cuz you've lost your love, Ohh?_

_Did she keep you waiting, did she break your date? Please elucidate, please elaborate! Did she treat you badly, was she very bad?_

_Did she make you mad? Are you very sad? Did she? Did she keep you waiting? Did she? Did she treat you very badly?_

_Are you very sad, are you so very sad? Was she a very rich man's daughter who showed that she was not all you thought her? _

_When with your songs of love you sought her, were you dowsed with water poured down from above?_

_Did you beat her, try to choke her till you made her pout? Did her father take a poker, did he throw you out?_

_Did you beat her and choke her and knock her all about?! Ohh??!!_

_Please elucidate! Are you very mad?! Please elaborate, Are you very sad?! We are curious indeed, we are curious indeed!_

_Did she make you mad? Are you very sad? We are curious indeed! Was she bad? Are you sad? Did she make you mad?!_

"Okay, that was interesting." Blake decided to say once the girls had screeched the last note of the song. "But no, Hunter's all right now. At least, I _think_ he is."

Back on the Animarium…

Virtual Reality World

Meanwhile, Princess Shayla, Cam, and I were watching the Rangers slide down a sand dune in the virtual desert we had sent them into. The sky there was the color of reddish dust, and had you not noticed some virtual camels and the Black Bison Zord walking behind them there, one would have assumed the Winds were walking on Mars. But it wasn't Mars. Rather, this virtual world felt and looked like the Sahara Desert.

Shane, stuck in the middle with Tori and Dustin on either side of him, started complaining the moment he had reached the bottom of the sand dune. "Come on, you guys!" He urged his teammates, and gave a tug on the strap which chained him to the Water student on his left side.

"Ow, Shane!" Tori immediately replied haughtily, and the boys gave her a funny look behind their hoods before continuing on. "Slow down, guys. I can't walk as fast as the rest of you."

"If we waited for you this training could take all day, so try to make the best of it and don't complain." Shane replied, and tugged the strap again when the girl slowed down even more.

"Ow! Shane, will you stop pulling? My wrist is totally tweaked!"

"Oh yeah? Mine is too. By the way, this would be so much faster if we could just split up. Laura, can you give us any hints? Like 'Walk straight till you see a coiled rattlesnake, then turn west and walk toward the setting sun'?"

Dustin suddenly spoke up. He had been silent this whole time, and now he decided to voice his objection. "Yeah, this thing had better be worth it, man. These cuffs are brutal! Not to mention this virtual sun is just as hot as the real one and is slowly cooking me alive. And what's with the bull?" He glared at Danny's former Zord when he said this, and received a disgruntled snort in return.

Without a hint of sympathy for the trio, I nonchalantly leaned against the sacred pool's gorilla statue and opened a bag of Doritos. Cam shot me a disgusted look on his face when he saw me stuffing my maw with chips, but I just grinned back at him before answering my phone shaped morpher. "Sorry guys, but I can't help you there. This is _your_ training program, not mine. Just know that Sensei wouldn't have approved of this if it wasn't important. Now focus, people. You can do it."

"Okay, I'm focusing, and I see one scroll a hundred yards away. Read it, Shane."

"'Stronger than three is one'."

There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to make sense of the short message. A stumped Dustin then threw up his hands in exasperation to protest asking me to buy fortune cookies any day would sure beat trying to get a scroll that was out of reach.

"Yeah, that's true." Shane agreed. "Anyway, I'll get it!" He rushed up to grab the parchment, only to fall down a few feet ahead because the straps on his hands hindered his movements. As you may have expected, the others fell down too, because they were attached to their second in command. Now, you may be wondering, isn't Shane the leader? Technically, yes, since he's the Red Ranger and everything. But if you recall, I am a former Ranger, which means I'm used to monster situations and evil trying to take over the world. Naturally, the role of leader falls to me. Shane may be head of his team, and I'm not saying I don't agree with his position, but anything he says has to be run by me first. In other words, I get the final word should there be dissension among group members.

"Ouch." Dustin groaned while trying to get up. "Who's on my foot? Shane!"

"That was _so_ not effective." Tori added while spitting sand out of her mouth. It was then that a good sized army of Putrids and Kelzaks appeared to attack the ninja students.

"Okay. We've got Kelzaks and weird gray sludgy putty things here. I count 20."

I snorted upon hearing this. "Dustin, they aren't Putties. They're Putrids, the kind I used to fight last year in Turtle Cove. However, since you're on the topic of enemy foot soldiers, why don't I send you a bunch of old school monsters?" With that, I typed in a command using Cam's laptop keyboard, causing 4 of Rita Repulsa's former minions to join the fray. "Here you go guys. Have fun."

"Eep!" Dustin now cried out, and dodged as a Kelzak leapt toward him in an effort to slash his face. Beside him, Tori did a back-flip to repel two Putrids, twisting the strap and giving both Shane and Dustin a dose of wrist pain. "Ouch! Wait, wait, don't pull! Geez! Big time hurt!" Each Ranger then separated when the Kelzaks broke their bonds, and an overly enthusiastic Shane laughed as he rushed to grab the scroll. In doing so however, he allowed the enemies to swarm the Earth and Water ninjas.

"Help us!" Tori screamed as a Putrid pulled her down to the ground, and Shane gasped in horror as Dustin joined her on the hot sand when a stupid Putty suddenly received a bright idea and knocked him down. Back on the Animarium, I pressed to the ESC button to cancel the program, and the Ninja Storm Rangers all sighed in relief when the simulation ended.

"Simulation over." Cam announced loudly as the computer shut down. At this time the exhausted trainees pulled off their hoods and began splashing sacred water from the pool onto their overheated faces. "That was, just so you know, below average. Well, this will be in the computer if you want to relive any of it."

"Right. You must be thankful, Rangers, this is all a simulation—" Began Sensei.

"No, no, you mustn't taint the water!" Princess Shayla interrupted, for she had suddenly noticed the ninjas turning her home into their personal sink. "Oh Laura, stop them. They're ruining the sacred pool."

"Guys, you heard her." I angrily snapped, and the three quickly jumped away from the water as if it had been poisoned. "Now, does anybody have any questions?"

"I do." Tori said, and sighed in despair. "Oh Sensei, Laura, why can't we get this right? Why do we keep getting F's in our training?"

"That is for you to figure out." Replied the little guinea pig. Sensei then flipped into my pocket when he saw me about to head for the portal. "Tomorrow, we shall continue."

I nodded back. "Yep. By the way, I'm seriously considering giving you three passes for Rocky's dojo back in Angel Grove. Your fighting skills at this stage are awfully pathetic, and the former Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger is sure to whip you three into shape. Those Putties shouldn't have been so difficult to defeat and yet you guys got trashed anyway. What a laugh. Anyway, you're dismissed. We'll continue tomorrow, like Sensei said."

Both Tori and Dustin were more than happy to hear those last words, so they turned toward the portal too, but Shane wasn't ready to leave just yet.

"Oh no, no, no. We have to stay and get this right. Get back here, guys."

"Oh no, man." Dustin answered with a yawn. "I've got to sleep now or tomorrow's just going to be a rerun of today. C'mon Tor." Together the two ninjas began walking hand in hand toward the gateway, only to be stopped again, this time physically. "Yo Shane! Don't touch us."

"This is not ninja school anymore. This is the real deal and if you're not willing to focus on what's important then—"

"—Dude, if you think you can do a better job by yourself, then just go for it man."

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Lothor's Ship…

Marah and Kapri naturally got themselves in another catfight over the Personal Alien Manager, so their uncle Lothor snatched the gadget out of their hands and ordered Mad Magnet, a magnet shaped monster, to take care of business. The minion happily complied, and the evil space ninja could only roar with laughter when the two nieces of his whined after being glued together magnetically.

"Until you can learn to work together, you'll be forced to stay like this." He said to them before turning to the monster. "And they wonder why I have acid reflux. Now Mad Magnet, go down to Blue Bay Harbor. Do whatever you like to do there, and if a Power Ranger comes by, don't forget to send my oh so wonderful regards." Here he produced a card whose cover read 'Greetings From Lothor'. "It'll explode 10 seconds after being opened or upon impact, by the way. Fun, no?"

"It's fun, all right!" Mad Magnet agreed upon taking the card out of his emperor's hands. "Whee! Can I go now?"

Lothor rolled his eyes before seating himself heavily upon his throne. "Yes, you can go. Quickly take off before I think about tossing you into the junkyard."

"Yes sir. Of course, sir."

Ninja Ops…

After tinkering with the Storm Megazord data for half an hour, Cam finally stood up, stretched, and started complaining.

"Just can't get this one piece to fit!" he cried out, pointing to the spinning Hawk Zord model on his computer screen. "I'm thinking Shane's lonesome personality's messed it up. If I could draw more power for the hydraulics systems I think I can make it work, but—"

"Your dad says that some kinds of power cannot be found in a computer." I called out from the back of the room. Cam then spun around to face me, and frowned when he saw me waving a comb at him. "Oh, sorry. I was helping your dad beautify his fur."

"Dad's fur is good enough, it does _not_ require grooming." The Sensei's son answered, and sat down at the low table to place another piece in the puzzle his father had assigned him to finish earlier. "Though that little bit of hair on the top of his head could be adjusted. The hat must have pushed it out of place." At this moment we heard footsteps coming down the tunnel, and Cam hurriedly rushed to hide the Megazord data so the Rangers could not see it. "Hey guys. Where's Shane?"

"I dunno." Dustin answered, and I put away the comb before helping Sensei put back his customary hat. "Let me guess, he's single-handedly saving the world?"

"Shane will learn in time." The guinea pig teacher immediately replied, and bit down on a piece of guinea pig chow because he felt hungry at the moment.

"But he won't let us help him." Tori added in a whiny voice. However, Sensei only repeated his sentence and told us all that for now the only thing we could do was sit down and wait it out. A dejected Dustin then went to ask Cam for his laptop. When given it a moment later, he went onto the Internet to look up some upcoming motocross race schedules. It was the only thing he could do to cheer himself up, since his best friend was currently not in the mood to talk to him at this time.

Storm Chargers

Kelly Holloway, the owner of the action sports store, was making an inventory of all the merchandise in her binder when Shane walked in with a soccer ball sized purple metallic armadillo in his arms. At first she didn't mind him playing with the intriguing creature, since he seemed to be happy rolling the Zord across the floor, but when the armadillo suddenly began making sad noises Kelly noted the Samoan teen looked upset.

"So, anything you want to talk to me about?" she asked him, while the dejected Dilly kept pushing at the boy with its paws in an effort to get him to continue the bowling game.

"Yeah. You're a good boss, right?" Shane answered. He picked up the little armadillo at this time, much to the delight of the animal, and began to scratch it behind the ears. "So, how do you do it? What's the trick?"

Kelly laughed at this. It was a nice laugh, the kind that lifted your spirits instantly, and Shane felt better. Well, a little better. "There's no trick. You just grab somebody and work with them. Give them a chance. Become teammates, ya know?"

"Uh huh. But how can you be sure things won't get all messy if you don't do the stuff around the store yourself?"

"That's why I trust people." Replied his boss. "By the way, where did you get that thing?"

"You mean this armadillo? Er, I borrowed it from a friend who got it for his birthday last year." The true story is: on the Animarium, "Dilly" the Armadillo had noticed Shane looked like he needed a happy companion and had decided to stick around with the Air ninja for the day, despite the fact Dustin owned his animal crystal. Just then Dilly squeaked loudly and began rolling toward the door. It was at this time that both people in Storm Chargers saw that people and various objects were flying by. Someone outside screamed: "I'm scared of flying!" and all color drained from Shane's face when he realized Blue Bay Harbor was in danger.

"Come on Dilly!" He immediately shouted. The little guy squeaked enthusiastically in reply. "We've got a city to save!" He quickly picked up the Armadillo Zord once more and ran out the door with him.

Ninja Ops

Back at headquarters, the rest of us had no clue Mad Magnet was out attacking the city, because the alarm failed to sound. Instead of focusing on the computer screen, we were intent on helping Cam finish the puzzle, and I was changing my ninja uniform into casual clothes.

"What's the big occasion?" Dustin asked, and I told him I had a date with Hunter. "Hey, wait. I thought you two broke up already."

"We didn't break up. We just had a bit of a disagreement. Now, if you'll excuse me…" I ninja streaked out the base.

City Locale

Meanwhile, Shane had followed his trusty armadillo into the center of Blue Bay Harbor. He looked around for a moment, as if unsure what to think of the situation, before noticing the Identified Flying Objects had turned into a pile of rocks in the plaza. Out from behind the rocks appeared a monster, who introduced himself as Mad Magnet.

"Hi, I appear to be lost." He announced. "Can you point me in the direction of the Power Rangers' HQ?"

"There are two headquarters around here." Shane replied while dropping into a defensive position. "But you're not going to get to either of them." Next to him, Dilly squeaked insults at the alien from his perch on a guardrail.

"Okay, enough with the talking!" Kapri suddenly shouted from behind the Red Ranger, and Shane whirled around to find the two girls waddling toward him in an awkward way because they had been stuck together earlier by the monster in front of them. "Get him, you pile of junk. He's a Ranger!"

"I _thought_ he looked familiar." Mad Magnet answered, and began to throw objects at Shane. "Take that!"

Coolly Shane kicked or punched away the random debris being hurled his way, but had to cry out in pain when abruptly a coil of barbed wire wrapped itself around his torso and squeezed hard. As he fell to the ground bound and helpless, Mad Magnet turned to see Barbed Wire Org coming over to assist him.

"Lovely!" said the former to the latter. "I'm glad you came. Now we can take down the Ninja Storm Rangers together. See here Red Ranger, you're doomed. "

"Not really." Shane hissed while getting up. "I can still take you myself, Tin Grin."

Barbed Wire Org laughed when he heard that. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, fool. Man, he seems as pathetic as Jungle Boy from last year."

"Pathetic? I'll show you pathetic." The two monsters immediately began advancing toward our fallen hero. Dilly squeaked loudly in horror before rolling away.

Ninja Ops

"Okay, we're going in." Tori told Sensei when she saw Shane's dilemma on the computer screen. The alarm finally sounded and the Wind Rangers were currently alert. "We have to help Shane get away from that weird wire monster—OW!" She was suddenly hit by a frantic Dilly, who had bounded into the room squeaking bloody murder. "Dustin!"

"And the weird magnet head thing." Dustin added. "You're right Tor, we've got to help him or else these two evil dudes are gonna turn our friend into toast. And don't ask me where the Armadillo dude came from because I've seriously no clue."

"What do you mean, you have no clue? The Armadillo crystal's yours, Dustin."

"Yeah, but I have no idea how Shane got him." He then looked around before remembering I had ninja streaked off to that date with Hunter. "Oh man. Where's Laura when you need her? Anyway, let's morph—"

"No!" Sensei's forceful voice interrupted the Earth ninja before another word could pop out of his mouth. "Stay here. I'll let you know when it is time."

"No way! We can't leave Shane out there by himself! You want him to become a refrigerator decoration for Lothor?"

"Stay here, I said. Sit." With a groan, the two ninjas reluctantly sat down at the low table and began to finish the puzzle in front of them. The Wild Zord proceeded put his head close to Kanoi Watanabe and squeak in his face. However, the Wind Ninja Academy teacher was not intimidated at all. He simply closed his eyes and clasped his paws together in a praying position. "Enough." He finally said with his eyes still closed. "Shane will be fine. You'll see."

"Squeek, squeek, squeek!" Dilly retorted angrily. He was so mad he wished Red Lion could gobble up this little rodent who dared to prevent the Guardians of the Earth from saving their beloved planet.

Animarium

Princess Shayla almost fainted when she saw the Org in front of this year's Red Ranger in the center of Blue Bay Harbor. "They can't be back!" She cried out desperately, and turned to the sky. "Oh Animus, help him! Do something, I beg you!"

As if on cue, something shaped like a small dagger fall to Earth from the heavens and headed for Earth. A relieved Princess Shayla sighed loudly when she saw this was a Crystal Saber making its way to its new owner in California.

City Locale

The Crystal Saber fell down to Earth so fast it sliced through Shane's restraints like butter when it reached him. The freed Air ninja quickly picked it up before the monsters could, and slashed them with it. He then morphed, and was able to make short work of Barbed Wire Org with it and his Ninja Sword, but Mad Magnet managed to use his magnetic abilities to pin Shane to the side of a car with a bike, a trashcan, and a refrigerator.

"Attractive." He crowed, and stepped over the body of his fallen comrade to deliver the 'Greetings From Lothor' card.

Ninja Ops

"Now?" Dustin and Tori now yelled together at their Sensei, and the guinea pig nodded.

"Now."

"Ninja Storm, Ranger form, ha! Power of Earth!"

"Power of Water!" Once morphed, the two Wind Rangers quickly ran out the door to help their friend. Back at the computer, Cam typed furiously as he tried to pinpoint my location. He finally found my morpher signal coming out of a Chinese restaurant in the northern part of the city and prepared to break up my date with Hunter.

City Plaza

Mad Magnet had almost opened up the card when the Blue and Yellow Rangers ninja streaked into the vicinity and knocked him down to the ground with awesome high jump kicks. Distracted, he broke his magnetic spell, and Shane was able to throw off the miscellaneous pieces of junk the monster had stacked upon him earlier.

"You guys came!" He cried out happily. "I thought Tin Grin would win for a moment."

"Of course we came, to help. This is what friends do, you know." Tori answered with a smile after opening her visors, and Dustin retracted his visors too so everyone could see each other's happy faces.

"I can't believe I was such a jerk earlier." Shane then added, and Dustin held up his hands.

"Whoa. I totally can." He answered, forcing Tori to slap him on the shoulder. "What? I could, dude."

"Yeah, I'm sure you could. By the way, thanks for letting me know I'm not alone in this whole 'save the world' mission."

"No problem. Like Tori said, that's what friends are for!" The three then exchanged hand slaps and had a good laugh, but the jolly moment didn't last long, because Mad Magnet soon recovered and decided to harass the trio once more. Visors immediately snapped back in place as the Rangers resumed martial arts poses.

"Excuse me, but I'm not through!" the monster roared, and raised his staff. Tori then nodded at Shane, who used his ability to travel on air to kick Mad Magnet back down to the ground. "Oof! Quit it, you pesky multicolored superheroes! I'm the boss here."

Dustin laughed at that. "Really? Then why are you on the ground and not on a pedestal with a crown on your head?"

"Whatever. I'm all charged up!"

"You know, if you guys look on his chest you can see his energy core." Tori told the others as Mad Magnet started charging up a green energy ball in his hand. The monster's chest was glowing so brightly now it was hard not to miss it, and the Blue Ranger decided to take out her Sonic Fin at this time. The boys copied her by pulling out their own personalized weapons, and together the three of them proceeded to combine their arsenal.

"Put them all together and what do you get?" Shane gloated, and his friends all enthusiastically shouted "Storm Striker!" in response.

"Oh, and kids, don't try this at home!" Dustin added, and pulled the trigger while the others' hands were resting upon his shoulders. At once a huge fireball came out the Lion Hammer, and this ball expanded so it became a huge metal ball weighing 100 tons. Dustin then brought the Storm Striker down, and they all laughed as the monster got squashed by the weight of the sphere.

"All right, we did it! Bye-bye, magnet guy!" Shane cried out, and turned to high five Dustin. Tori grinned as well, but then Cam's voice came through their communicators.

"Uh guys? It isn't the time to celebrate."

"And why not?" Dustin wanted to know, and Cam pointed out the Scroll of Empowerment which was coming down from the sky. As the Wind Rangers watched in horror, the scroll turned into red lightning, causing the remains of Mad Magnet to reassemble themselves. The monster regenerated and bent to knock them all down with one giant metal hand.

"Dude, that's so not good!" Dustin cried out while stepping back. "What can we do now?"

"What can you do now? Just relax and try not to panic." I said through Tori's morpher. Cam had gotten hold of me in the restaurant a little while ago. I knew exactly what was going on because from the parking lot of the shopping center I could see the huge monster blocking out part of the sky.

"What?" Shane wondered. From his place a few miles from my present location he was amazed to hear his Crystal Saber automatically start playing the music normally used to summon the Wild Zords from the Animarium. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Okay, it's go time. Now listen closely Rangers. Cam thinks you guys can't handle this but I certainly think so and therefore his opinion doesn't count, at least for today. Hidden upon the Animarium are three powerful robotic assault vehicles Cam and I made for monster situations such as this. Now that Lothor's raised the stakes, we have no choice but to call upon them. And here they come!" With that, I noted the bridge coming down from the sky, and the Rangers looked up to see three animalistic Zords heading straight for them. "Cam, thank you for hitting the button. I appreciate it."

"Right. You appreciate it. Just remember who was the mastermind behind this whole Operation Ninja Zord Construction Project before you start putting on airs."

"Darn you Cam. You always have to make everyone feel bad with those sarcastic comments of yours, eh?"

"Oh yeah! The bird's all mine!"

"Ahem, yes, that's right, Shane. You will be piloting the Hawk Zord. Tori, the Dolphin Zord's yours, and Dustin, you'll be in charge of riding Simba. But before you all leave, let me give everybody some more info so that nobody says 'what, but I didn't know that' later on. According to Cam, he's adapted them to operate under your command using your inner ninja powers of Air, Water, and Earth. The zords are also equipped with an arsenal of state-of-the-art weaponry that you can access by using the Power Discs on your morphers. For now, there's only one special weapon you can access, but Mr. Sarcastic Tech Guy will give you more later on, when the occasion calls for it. Okay, I've said everything important, so it's time for the three of you to try out those cool machines."

"On it!" Tori cried, and the three ninjas immediately entered their Zords.

"Ooh, I am so scared!" Mad Magnet said in response to the Ninja Zords' appearance, and emphasized the fact that he was a magnet so nothing made out of metal could stop him. To prove his point, he decided to throw various metal objects at the Rangers, but they came out unscathed due to the many layers of armor Cam had wisely chosen to cover the vehicles with. Seeing how nothing seemed to stop their advance, the monster began to quiver with fear for real, and Shane took this to mean he could go in for the kill.

"Flame Attack!" he cried while pushing the second white button on the control panel, and the Hawk Zord became engulfed in flames. The Red Ranger then decided to fly the Zord in circles around Mad Magnet, and I winced as loud explosions shook my eardrums.

Tori decided to go next, with a shout of "Surf's up, dude!" She then flipped Mad Magnet into the air with her Dolphin's nose and the others and I laughed as the Zord bounced the monster the way you or I would bounce a beach ball. The game eventually grew boring, so Tori flipped over and slapped the monster to the ground with a powerful Dolphin tail. But Mad Magnet quickly stood up again, and had his revenge by grabbing his captor and shaking her hard while she was doing the Dolphin victory dance.

Thinking the Zords might be in trouble, I instinctively reached for my animal crystals, and while I searching the glove compartment of my van for them Shane got hit. The sound of metal being hit by metal startled me so much I jumped up and banged my head on the roof of the vehicle. "Ouch!"

"Ack, I've been whacked!" The Red Ranger cried out, and his Hawk Zord landed on top of Tori's Zord when the monster threw him into the air. "Dustin, a little help here please!"

"Guess it's up to me." The Yellow Ranger said, and unleashed the Lion Tornado Blast by spinning his Zord's mane and creating a powerful horizontal cyclone. Knocked off balance, Mad Magnet ate the dust one more time, so I stopped bothering to look for the crystals. After all, I told myself, the Rangers will win this battle, and the Wild Zords deserve a long break. Just so you know, they won't see battle till 'Thunder Strangers, Part 1'.

The Rangers then fell back since Dustin had proved to be the only person capable of doing a lot of damage to Mad Magnet, and he decided to smash into the monster after powering up the afterburners. A scream later, Tin Grin died, but came back for the second time thanks to his magnetic personality.

"Rangers," I now yelled through their morphers, "the scroll!"

"Oh yes, the scroll!" Shane answered, and was awarded with a smile from Sensei Guinea Pig on the view screen in front of him. "One has the strength of three.' Guys, what say you to a big combo?"

"Big combo it is!" Dustin cried out, and the Lion Zord started to stand upon its hind legs. "Wind Ninja Zords, combine!"

Once the Megazord had been assembled, Cam then told them to follow the prompt screen's commands in order to get a Power Sphere. They did with multiple shouts of 'lock and drop', and I watched with glee as the Serpent Sword burst from its ball and landed neatly in the Storm Megazord's hand.

"Go Ninja Storm! Great job so far, guys!"

"Thank you Laura." Shane replied, and asked Mad Magnet if he liked math.

"Math?" the monster asked. "What's math?"

"It's this!" Dustin answered. "Megazord Multiply!"

At his command the Storm Megazord made two more copies of itself before all three readied themselves for the final strike.

"Ready?" Shane asked.

"Aim…" Dustin added.

"Fire!" All three Rangers then cried, and the Megazord slashed the monster 9 times, causing it to explode and me to jump up for joy. As I leapt into the air, I was not aware a 10 year old boy was watching me behind my back.

"It is time." Animus said softly in his god-like voice, and vanished in a ray of golden light before I could sense his presence. At the same time, the people Mad Magnet had turned into statues returned to normal, and we were back at Ninja Ops.

"Remember that it is never good to escalate a battle, and all will be well." Sensei told us after Cam announced that Blue Bay Harbor was safe for now. "You did a good job today, Rangers, and now that you all have learned to work as one, the balance of power will always be at your side."

"I'm glad Shane's finally learning how to be part of a team." I said, and plucked the last puzzle piece out of the teacher's hand so I could place it in its correct position. "There. Look, it's a puzzle showing the Storm Megazord standing side by side with the Predazord. Oh, it's such a happy scene."

"Happy?" Dustin eventually asked after a moment of silence. "I wouldn't say that. It doesn't convey happiness to me."

"Well, whether or not you get it," I answered. "it's almost time for dinner, and I've got another date with that hot guy tonight."

"What, again?" The others wanted to know, but I simply smiled and ninja streaked out of the room without bothering to give them an explanation.


	3. Beauty and the Beach

Beauty and the Beach

Friday afternoon brought endless sunshine, no clouds, a breeze, and tons and tons of all you can eat ice cream. But before I could have fun at the beach with Tori and a gigantic Snow cone, I had to first endure an uninteresting lesson on the history of Ancient Rome, my least favorite ancient civilization, in a class taught by the boring Professor Johnson. Normally, I would be alert, eager, and enthusiastic to participate in any history class, but today didn't perk my interest at all. That is because today's lesson revolved around Julius Caesar, and quite frankly, I was getting annoyed. I had already read a 200 page book on this famous guy, and yet Prof. Johnson couldn't stop ranting about how 'bangglorious' this long-dead general had been in his lifetime as if we hadn't had so much reading to do after all. In other words, he was acting as though we, his pupils, had absolutely no clue who the big guys from the Roman era were, despite having thrown tons of assignments at us over the past few weeks.

Finally, I raised my hand, and was called upon. "Thank you. May I be as kind as to point out that 'bangglorious' is not a word, and also we're all tired of Ancient Rome?"

"Yeah!" Everyone chorused, happy to hear someone had come to their rescue. In the back, a few students sleepily raised their heads from their desks and yawned when they heard the rant was finally over. "C'mon Professor, let's turn the discussion to something else already! Like, why do all civilizations fall down eventually?"

"Ah, that is another interesting discussion for the last 15 minutes of class!" Professor Johnson beamed when he heard this and agreed to switch topic. Unfortunately, he didn't get far before starting to use made up words again and making us feel like morons. So when class at last finished, I stayed behind to hide underneath a desk and use my ninja breath ability to blow his papers out of his hands. (Revenge is sweet, I think, in this type of situation.) As he scrambled to retrieve them with a cry, I smirked, gathered my books, and ninja streaked out the window before he could notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Nice going." I said to Tori when she came out of the water with her surfboard to greet me, and added another layer of sunscreen onto my already tanned skin. She laughed in response before coming to join me in the shade of our umbrella, and set the surfboard down. "That was some wave, eh?"

"Yeah, some wave. Hey, there's Shane. What in the world is he doing?"

"He's talking to a guy. I think his name was Dickles. Or Pickles. I get him mixed up."

"Mm-hmm."

Meanwhile, Shane was laughing with the 'D' or 'P' guy. The two of them then looked at Tori while Mystery D or P Guy commented that our surfer chick had been so 'awesome' on the waves. The boys decided to part ways at this time, and Shane happily sauntered over to sit with us underneath the giant white umbrella I had set up the moment we got onto the beach. "So, what was that all about?"

"Some guy." The Air ninja answered. "He couldn't stop talking about how cute you were, how you wanted your phone number. And Tori—"

Tori was quick to respond by stopping him with a raised hand. "Whoa, hold up. Stop and rewind. Super cute surfer hottie was asking about me?"

The Samoan grinned. "Yeah. Dude, he was so lame!"

"And you let him leave? You ever think I would want to meet him? See if he wanted to hang out with me sometime in the coming weeks? No? How could you!" An irritated Tori then grabbed a suntan lotion bottle out of her bag and squeezed a good amount of cream on Shane's shoulder. "By the way, this is just further proof that you are a complete doofus. I gotta go meet Dustin."

"Wait, wait, I can get Dill back! He's just over there, I swear—" Shane then brought his arms up and pointed to the left. But Tori was adamant. She nonchalantly turned up her nose and walked proudly away, leaving behind a trail of wet footprints in her wake.

Meanwhile, Marah and Kapri were spying on us through two pairs of high tech alien binoculars from behind a bare bush not too far from the beach.

"Ooh!" Squealed the niece with the bug shaped headdress, "let's clone the red guy! He's _so_ handsome, don't you think? Or maybe we can do this to the silver girl! I want to see the look on her face when she sees her evil twin!"

"No, it's gotta be blue, Marah." Said the other girl, who had a headdress that looked like some wild cat's head (it looks to me like a black leopard), "You don't want to mess with the Silver Ranger. Not ever."

"But the surfer girl? Oh come on, so perky and athletic? I just want to bury her up to her neck in sand."

"First you've got to learn how to dig a hole." Kapri ended this retort with a snort. It was also at this time that Marah attempted to grab the binoculars belonging to her sister, and was reprimanded again. "Never. Ever. Grab. This thing's fragile, you know. All right Marah, just remember who's running things around here, and nobody will get hurt." There was a whimper, then silence, as the younger cousin of Cameron Watanabe diverted her eyes from her sister out of respect.

In Storm Chargers later that day, Dustin and Shane groaned simultaneously as they looked at the wrenches in their hands and knelt next to the nearest broken dirt bike Kelly Holloway had told them to fix by the end of our shift. From my place at the cash register behind the counter, I smirked, then tossed a Peanut Chew at a little girl who was eyeing the tiny Bubble Gum ball dispenser I was toying with. She squealed with delight before running back to show her mother the candy, and that's when an angry Tori burst in with a loud slam of the door. The boys didn't know it was her, for they were very absorbed in their work, but I did, and held out a hand to her when she came forward with a pair of blue shorts she wanted to buy. "That would be 12 dollars right there, plus tax, my dear upset friend." I said with glee, and promptly both Shane and Dustin raised their heads to snigger at the name I had given her. "Anyway, Shane thinks you're mad at him."

Tori smiled as she handed me the money, then took the shorts before I could place them in a bag for her. Right afterwards she began fiddling with the Rubik's cube someone had left on the floor of the store with a smile on her face. "Oh, that's probably why he gets the red suit."

"Okay, I don't see what's the big deal around here." Dustin piped up. "Shane didn't mean anything he said to you, you know."

"You don't get it either, I see. I'm a girl. Giiirrrl."

"I get that. But you're not a girl-girl—"

"You're a 'guy-girl'." This was Shane, trying to help his friend explain the situation. While checking out a pair of gloves for a Factory Blue rider, I fought the urge to snicker, and ended up snorting loudly when all attempts to stifle my glee failed. At that moment Kelly walked by with clipboard and some letters in hand, and gave us all a sympathetic look. "My advice to you boys, stop trying to make it better because it's only getting worse. Hey Laura. You've got mail." Here she handed me a small package, which I eagerly broke open to reveal a Arabian horse figurine and a little card. "Nice, you've been accepted into the Equestrian Club at Blue Bay University. Congrats."

I grinned back at her. "Yeah, it's cool. Hey Tor, it looks like you've got mail too. An invitation, more like. It's from Girl Sport magazine."

Tori looked surprised to find out she had mail, since she didn't work here at all and therefore the mailman wouldn't have sent her something via Storm Chargers, but took the invitation with her name on it from me without complaining. "Wow. A photographer from Girl Sport magazine saw me surfing this morning and want me to come down to the beach again later this afternoon for a photo shoot? That's…

amazing." She smiled, then looked at Shane, who quickly put on a frown. "Yes?" She inquired.

"Isn't that the magazine that features these awesomely gorgeous girls surfing and doing other cool sports?" Dustin wanted to know.

"Yeah. So?"

"Okay, well, we'll just go into 'silent mode' now." Dustin then looked at Shane, who grinned back, and the two boys proceeded to continue fixing the dirt bike. "Uh Shane, that bolt doesn't go there." With them occupied on this job, Tori continued to read the invitation, while Kelly looked over her shoulder.

"So." Said our boss, "you in for this, Tori?"

"Yes. I want to show them I'm not just some typical tomboy."

"That's a good enough reason." Kelly smiled before noticing I was trying to head for the door long before my break. "Hey! What's the big idea?"

"I have Astronomy class at the University now, remember?" I replied. "It's gonna last for two hours and usually I get an early dismissal today. So toodles!"

As I headed for the door whistling 'Ode to Nature', Marah and Kapri, disguised as divers, emerged slowly from their hiding place behind the bathing suit racks. They giggled nervously when I suddenly stopped whistling to glance in their direction for a moment, but relaxed when it appeared I had overlooked them. Actually, I hadn't, but as I was about to be late for class I did not bother to call for Ranger backup. Instead I simply turned back around and went out the door, leaving them to wonder why the Silver Wild Force Ranger hadn't attacked them when she had the chance.

Not sure whether to appear for the photo shoot or not, Tori went to Ninja Ops soon after I had left the store to seek the advice of our teacher, who was wise beyond his years. The little guinea pig was in the middle of reading a translated version of the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber while sitting on the gigantic book, but hopped off when his Water student arrived. When presented with her invitation, he looked at it closely, then met her eye. Behind them, Cameron Watanabe continued to type codes into the computer. In one corner of the screen flickered a etching of the Storm Megazord Lightning Mode, and in the left corner a camera on the Animarium showed Red Lion growling something to the Silver Wolf. Sleeping upon the majestic king's back was Dilly, who squeakily snored away until Lion rolled over and caused him to slip off few moments later. Seeing this scene, Cam paused to smirk, and when Tori turned her head around to see what was so funny he quickly removed the left corner screen.

"So, anyway, do you think I should appear for this photo shoot?" she asked, and Sensei looked down upon the invitation one last time. "Hmm. A ninja's power flows through them from deep within their being; this inner strength can help you in all situations."

"Okay. I officially declare you're no help at all." Tori answered with a smile.

"There's a difference between helping someone and deciding for them." Sensei answered, before watching as Miss Hanson ran out the door. "Now, Cameron—"

"—is the time to stop writing codes." The Sensei's son finished. "My fingers are getting blisters."

"Keep on typing, my son. I have a feeling we'll need them soon."

"You better be right Dad." Cameron meekly turned around after this to finish modifying the program. "My work can't all be for nothing, right? That would be bad. Worse than having to muck out the stable over there." As if on cue, the horses in their stalls all neighed angrily in reply. "All right, nothing can be worse than having to muck out the stable every day, but still..."

Meanwhile, Tori had ninja streaked to the location of the photo shoot. While she was wondering if she had come to the right place, two mysterious Rangers in crimson and navy uniforms watched her silently from on top a rocky hill adjacent to the beach. One was older and taller than the other, and had the outline of a rhino beetle on his helmet, and the other was slightly shorter and had a small picture of the stag beetle on his helmet. Both had been sent by Lothor to spy on us, the Wind Rangers, and both were currently doing their job.

"It's a pity we're not seeing action." Crimson grumbled loudly. "I would give anything to attack the Wind ninjas."

"Yeah, it's a pity we've been told to_ watch_ the Wind Rangers rather than fight them." Navy answered. "This waiting is getting old."

Crimson nodded. "I know, bro. You don't have to remind me. Now chill. We have to do this right." Navy nodded back. An audible crack could be heard as they ninja streaked away.

Sensei left soon after Cam ran out of Ninja Ops for some fresh air, presumably to join him by the lake, so I had the perfect opportunity to ditch studying by ninja streaking over to Storm Chargers in order to meet up with Shane and Dustin. Meanwhile, our friend Tori was being sucked into a camera and a fake one was coming to take her place, but none of us Wind Rangers had any clue about this turn of events at the moment.

"Pass me a wrench, will you?" Dustin suddenly piped up from underneath his dirt bike, and Shane complied by taking one out of the tool kit on the floor next to the vehicle. Behind them, I kicked Shane's skateboard out of the way before an old lady who was watching her grandson pick a surfboard could step on it and fall, then cursed the Red Ranger's bad habit of leaving his stuff on the floor of the store each and every day. An average of 30 people tripped on his 'lucky red skateboard' every month, and quite frankly Kelly didn't like this statistic at all, but for now there was nothing we could do to dissuade the Samoan from littering.

Abruptly the door chimes jingled loudly as someone came in, and I was somewhat surprised to see a disgruntled, mean-looking Tori troop in to confront the two boys working on Dustin's bike.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked in my usual cheery voice, and for the first time Tori screeched that nothing was up in an unusually high pitched voice none of us had ever heard her use. "Ouch! Tor, that was uncalled for."

"Yeah, you're acting a bit strange today." Shane agreed. "Anyway, is there anything we can do for you?"

The fake Tori nodded. "Yes. I need you guys to take me to Ninja Ops right away. I was attacked by Kelzaks and really need Sensei's advice. Now let's go."

Dustin looked at Kelly, who was currently helping a Factory Blue rider choose a pair of motocross gloves, then jerked a thumb toward the loading area at the back of the store. "Okay, well, there's a Storm Chargers van parked in the back lot we can use to drive to the Wind Ninja Academy. Laura, you with us or not?"

"Actually, I think one of us ought to stay here so that Kelly doesn't think we're ditching her." I answered, and Shane agreed this was logical before volunteering to stay behind. "Great. Just keep on working on Dustin's bike and we'll call you if anything happens." At this time Dustin pulled out a van key from one of the drawers behind the cash register, intending to drive the vehicle, but no sooner had he done so than a small quick hand yanked them out of his fingers.

"Hey!" he complained, and had to be reminded he didn't have his license with him today. "Oh yeah. Right. Bye Shane."

"Bye guys." Shane answered glumly. Once we had exited with fake Tori in tow, he sighed and picked up the fallen wrench. "Well, here goes. Now I wonder what this wrench will do to this bolt…"

Meanwhile the real Tori had remembered Sensei's advice and put it to good use by using her inner ninja powers to create a fountain that lifted her out of her camera prison. Back in the city, Dustin, the fake Tori, and I were going through a construction zone in our Storm Chargers van.

"Ooh, we may have to stop for gas soon." I said while making a careful right turn onto Crawford Avenue. "Luckily for us there's a Mobil station not too far away from here so we can refill the tank."

"We're not stopping." The fake Tori snapped, and Dustin pointed out we might not make it because the gas meter had reached the 'Empty' mark. "So what? Just drive. We'll make it."

"Man, you're sure stubborn today Tori." I commented, and unhooked the Lunar Caller from my wrist when we reached a dead end. "Aw dude. It looks like we're stuck here. As you can see, we are definitely not going to make it. Let me call Shane—"

SLAM! Before I could even finish my sentence Tori had gotten out of the vehicle and banged the door closed. As Dustin and I watched in alarm, she stomped up to the construction worker blocking our way with a 'Stop' sign and started to shout. "What is the meaning of this?!" she hollered loudly. "What are you doing? Move it! You're nothing! Move it! Now, now, now!" Immediately afterwards the scared worker flipped his sign over, and a nutty Tori began coming back toward us.

"Wow, she _is_ really peeved today." Dustin noted, and that's when we noticed Dill walking over with his green surfboard tucked neatly under his right arm. When he waved to Tori, we thought she would wave back, but this didn't seem to change the Water ninja's expression at all. This was strange, so when Tori had settled back in her seat Dustin immediately told her that this was the guy from the beach Shane had told him about, so why was she so mad to see him?

"What guy?" Tori wanted to know, then turned to glare at me. Before we could say anything more, she opened her mouth wide and screeched: "Can we get there please?!", prompting me to restart the engine as fast as I could. Not wanting to make her even more irritated, I silently continued down the road toward Ninja Ops without another word.

I had barely gotten our vehicle out of the construction site when a person jumped in front of the van, forcing me to screech to a stop in order to prevent an accident from happening. The unplanned stop also jerked the fake Tori, who snapped 'Now what?' after seeing—what a surprise—her double standing in the middle of the road.

"Wow, what a surprise, two Toris." I commented, and Dustin simply yelped 'whoa' before snatching up the Lunar Caller from the dashboard (I had taken it off earlier) to call Shane, who replied he was on his way. "Anybody else confused?"

"I certainly am." Dustin answered after handing back my phone, and cringed when the Tori sitting in our van suddenly got out angrily to face her counterpart. "Okay, I'm guessing we ought to help her."

"Yes, that's what I think we should do too. However, we don't know who's the real Tori, and Shane's not even here at the moment, so let's not jump to conclusions just yet. For now, just watch."

"Watch?" Dustin still looked confused, but then the real and fake Toris started to battle after exchanging a few words, and it dawned on him. "Oh, watch _that_. Okay. Now all we're missing is Dolby Digital Surround sound, a comfy couch, and popcorn."

"I have popcorn." Reaching back I pulled out a package that said 'Joe's Popcorn: the Butteriest Kind on Earth' and threw it to him. An excited Earth ninja proceeded to stuff it into his jacket, and as he did this I noticed a monster was approaching us. "Uh Dustin? Look up."

"Not now, I'm still in the middle of hoarding my evening treat." Dustin answered. A slap got his attention, and before long the two of us were facing Copybot with a newly arrived Shane in an abandoned parking lot reserved for Chong-kee's Chinese/Japanese cuisine restaurant employees. Tori could not join us, as she was still in the middle of a battle with her double. "Okay, I'm prepared to work now. You guys ready?"

I nodded. "Ready. All in favor of destroying Lothor's new monster, say 'yea'…"

Many hands went up at this time, and I remembered sixth grade for a moment, for it was in middle school that our class had to emulate the US government through a little project known as Model Congress. But then the monster screeched, drawing me back to present day, and I instinctively grabbed my morpher. "Sorry if I looked like I was spacing out, but I got a little carried away by a fond memory for a moment. Now that I'm _finally _back on Earth, let's do it! Wild Access!"

"Ninja Storm, Ranger form! Ha!"

Copybot turned out to be easy to knock down. Once he had been thrown 20 feet away onto the hard stone pavement I turned to congratulate Shane for doing such a superb 'Ninja Air Assault' on the monster, but was interrupted by Tori, who had finished her personal little fight earlier. My wild instincts immediately told me it was the real Tori, but the boys both leapt back a good 2 feet when she touched them on the shoulders.

"Oh, that poser never stood a chance." She announced with a smile. "One wave of water, and bam! Fake Tori went down like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Anyway, what in the world is _wrong_ with the two of you? Why is everyone so scared of me all of a sudden?"

"We're just afraid you're not the real Tori." Shane answered, and Dustin nodded. The boys then retracted their visors so I could see their suspicious faces, and I began to feel jealous because I didn't have retractable visors like they did. But I could still talk beneath the stuffy helmet, and ordered Tori to prove that she wasn't fake.

"Okay." She answered. "Dustin, your real name's Waldo, Shane, you're afraid of spiders, and Laura, your favorite song's 'Ode to Nature'."

"Oh, ho, ho!" After hearing this Dustin laughed and began running his fingers up Shane's arm. "You're afraid of spiders? Dude, that's like…I don't know, super weird or something. And Laura," here he turned to face me, "do you seriously_ like_ that loony song I hear you hum every morning?"

This comment got both of us mad, and Shane was the first to react to this offensive observation. "You want to make something of it, Waldo?" He snapped, and I, also a bit put down, slapped the Earth ninja on the back of the head with a clawed, gloved hand. We could have had a fight amongst ourselves then, but thankfully the logical Tori was there to stop us with a look that quickly dissolved all enmities between us.

"You guys can all get some therapy later." She told us before morphing. "Right now we have something more important to worry about. Ninja Storm, Ranger form! Power of Water!"

But Copybot was not amused. "Are you through?" he asked, and called the Kelzaks to the scene. To my dismay the Kelzaks were mixed in with a few Putrids, and I began to worry that Master Org might have revived when I rushed in to fight them in a Ninja Shadow Battle. When the fight was over and Dustin told the exploding minions to 'have a nice day' however, the thought of Master Org vanished, and was replaced with worry that Cam's codes might not be ready today to save us if Copybot suddenly went wacko and badly damaged the Storm Megazord. "So you beat a bunch of Kelzaks and Putrids, whoopdy doo. You Rangers will pay by the time I'm through." On the word through, he fired, and we all fell down to the ground trapped in a world of pain.

Seeing we were all down and out gave Copybot great pleasure, and he reappeared after disappearing for a moment to make us feel helpless. This didn't faze me at all, for I knew that monsters with the power of invisibility aren't as invincible as they think they are. Almost as soon as she had been knocked down Tori was up again, ready to fight. Being more experienced, I was about to advise her not to face the monster alone when she abruptly did by creating an illusion with water, which hid her and the monster from view. Afraid she wouldn't make it out despite being a Water ninja, I grabbed the Lunar Cue and fired straight at the illusion, but neither Tori nor the monster appeared as a result, so I began to really fear for her life. But Shane and Dustin did not react, so I stood down and waited. Eventually we heard a shout of 'Ninja Water Blast!', and the illusion faded. Tori reappeared along with the monster, who was now soaking wet.

"Brrr, I'm cold!" Copybot commented. "And now I don't feel so bold!"

"Yeah, you're definitely not going to like it when we do _this_!" Shane added while taking out his Hawk Blaster. At the same time the others pulled out their own weapons in order to form the Storm Striker, and I decided to help by trapping Copybot in a green coordinate plane so he couldn't escape. "Tori, since you have got the Sonic Fin in front today, why don't you do the honors?"

"Thanks for asking, Shane." Tori answered, and pulled the trigger in order to trap the monster in a giant blue bubble, which quickly rose into the air upon capturing him before exploding. As burning chunks of monster hit the ground we all jumped for joy, but meanwhile, on Lothor's ship, no-one seemed happy.

"Don't just stand there looking as though someone has just run over your dog with a car!" the evil emperor complained to his generals. "Do something!"

"As you wish sir." Zurgane replied. Promptly a scroll summoned from the Personal Alien Manager appeared in the skies above Blue Bay Harbor and reformed into a giant version of Copybot. "Perfect. Now let's see how the Rangers deal with this."

"Zord time, guys." Back on Earth I was rallying my group for another giant robot battle. "Cam, hit it!"

"Here we go!" The tech guy responded from his place at the computer inside Ninja Ops, and almost immediately the sky bridge from the Animarium appeared so the Wind Zords could descend on it. After the Rangers had boarded their vehicles, I heard Tori tell the monster that if he grew she and her friends would also grow, and in a matter of seconds the Storm Megazord had formed.

Copybot was not amused, as usual. "Hey, over here!" he cried out. "Give this a try, Copybot multiply!"

"Yikes, he just created four duplicates of himself." Dustin yelped in surprise. From on top of a twenty story building I slapped my helmet and wondered if the Yellow Ranger would ever stop creating false alarms. So what if the monster could make copies of himself? It was no big deal. "Okay, we've got a serious multiplication problem here."

"Speaking of multiplication do you guys realize that if you picked them all off one by one you'll eventually hit the original guy?" I asked the Rangers after witnessing the Copybots attack their Megazord. "Cam, are the codes for the new mode up yet?"

"Yes Laura, they're up. Hey guys, I've created something I like to call the 'Storm Megazord Lightning Mode'. You can control it using your inner ninja powers, but it only lasts 60 seconds, so make the best of it when it's activated."

"It takes longer to make microwavable popcorn." Shane observed.

"Hey yeah, it does." Dustin agreed.

"Don't worry, it's all the time we'll need." Tori added. "Ready guys?"

Everyone, including me, nodded in response. "Lightning Megazord, now!"

Seconds later, the sleeker Lightning Megazord did a cartwheel over a low building before bouncing to a stop behind a Macy's store. "Mean lean fighting machine." I hear Shane say, and that's when the Rangers began kicking and slashing at the fake monsters while Cam reminded everyone of the time now and then. 60 seconds later the Megazord had to power down, but this didn't stop the Rangers. Without hesitating for a moment they activated the Serpent Sword by dropping their Power Discs through their consoles. "One to the power of three!" Shane now calls out. "Megazord triple strike!" Three slashes, one scream of pain, and Copybot vanished into thin air forever. "Wow, now _that's_ awesome, dudes!"

"Yeah, it turns out inner strength was the one thing Copybot couldn't copy." I said loudly. "Now let's go home!"

Back at Storm Chargers Shane, Dustin and I were discussing profits with Kelly when Tori came over to talk with us. "And so if we lower the prices on the motocross helmets we could invite more customers and therefore get more money—Oh hi Tor."

"Hi." Tori answered, and noticed both boys had started to snicker. "What?"

"Oh, uh, there's a customer by the surfboard rack over there who needs your help." Dustin replied. "You ought to go talk to him."

"Talk to him? You realize I don't actually work here, right?"

"Yeah, but still, you really need to help that guy. He's…well…you know, stuck. He seriously has a dilemma." Here the Earth ninja gave her a little push, and Tori reluctantly walked over to ask the stranger if he needed any help. He turned with a smile, and that's when Tori realized this was the same guy from the beach.

"Hi, I'm Tori." She said, and blushed.

"Hey, I'm Dill." The guy replied, and we all laughed as Tori and Dill started to fall in love with each other.

Unknown to us Marah and Kapri were also watching this scene being played out from the TV screen on their uncle's ship. As they debated who was the better looking evil sister Lothor suddenly came up to tell them that they were too stupid to do anything. Both girls groaned in reply, and as they retreated to sulk elsewhere the Crimson and Navy Rangers appeared in the doorway. In a moment they had crossed the room and paid their respects by lowering themselves on one knee and bowing their heads.

"Lucky for you we're ready to go." Crimson growled. "All the pieces are in place."

"Let the games begin." Navy added. Lothor heard this and started to laugh. He laughed so hard Cam, who was watching the outside of his ship, swore he saw the alien spaceship shake with each booming 'ha'.


	4. Looming Thunder

_Looming Thunder_

"College life is sure crazy." I commented while watching some riders tear up the dirt at the motocross track with the Storm Chargers boss. "I've got tons of homework to finish by Monday. Next time tell Dustin he seriously doesn't need me around to see him hang out with the big boys here. I've told him once, and I've told him twice that my mountain of papers is much more important than an action sport, but does the kid listen? Nooo, I think not."

Kelly nodded. "Good point. Having been in your shoes I know just how tough your life is right now. And speaking of Dustin, here he comes." At this time the Yellow Ranger screeched to a stop by the van I was sitting in, and I jumped out to help him load the bike into the car. Seconds later two more motocross riders stopped next to the adjacent navy van, prompting Dustin to tell us how they had just creamed him on the track.

"They ride like Factory pros." Kelly answered. "And no, I have not seen them before."

"Speaking of these guys, they look awfully familiar." I said. "Dustin, could you come with me, please?"

"Yeah, okay." Dustin answered. He smiled, and watched as the riders pulled off their helmets before going up to exchange hand slaps with them. "Hey, how's it going?"

The crimson clad rider looked at the track for a moment, then snorted. "Ugh, dirt's a bit soggy."

Dustin grinned. "Well, it didn't seem to slow you guys down."

"Wait, wait, before you guys go any further with this conversation I want you three to introduce yourselves." I said, and the rider I had identified as Hunter put on a shocked look when he recognized me. "Hunter, Blake, this is Dustin, Dustin, this is my boyfriend Hunter and his brother Blake." To make sure they all knew who's who I pointed fingers at each rider when their names were called.

"Laura, good to see you." Hunter finally found his voice and proceeded to slap hands with my friend and me. "So—"

"Wait, you guys are brothers?"

There was silence as the three listened to the wind howl around their heads. Finally Hunter let it be known that he and Blake were adopted.

Dustin seemed impressed. "Cool." He answered. "So uh…Where's the home track?"

Blake winced before telling Dustin he wouldn't have heard of it. I nodded, and turned away so the boys could have a more private conversation. From my place next to the van, I proceeded to listen as Hunter told Dustin he had too much air on his jumps, and groaned when my Lunar Caller started to ring. "Oh come on, why now? Anyway, go for Laura."

"Laura, it's Cam. Tell Dustin to meet me in the forest. Please have Shane and Tori meet him there too on the new Tsunami Cycles."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, I just felt like we needed to do a bit of training. In fact, feel free to join in on that Wolf Savage Cycle of yours so I can compare the Cycles and make any necessary changes."

"Sure, we can train. But it's Sunday! It's my day off and I seriously need to finish a ton of homework tonight. College life is killing me here and you want me to train?"

"Correction, it's _everyone_'s day off. However, it wouldn't hurt any of you Rangers to actually have a mock fight now and then. And if college life is really stressful, you should resign your position as Guardian of the Earth."

"Yeah, okay." I got off the phone, then told Kelly I was leaving before shouting for Dustin and slamming the door of the vehicle. "Come on! We've got work to do, dude. No matter what you say, we're so outta here. Thank goodness you boys seem to have finally finished that little chit-chat."

"Aw shucks, I gotta go." Dustin had to say to Blake and Hunter immediately afterwards. After they had exchanged goodbyes, I told Dustin about Cam's plan before tossing the Earth student's dirt bike into the van and ninja-streaking away to do my part.

Despite the fact that Cam had ordered him to be on time for this morning's training regimen, Dustin, after ripping off his MX gear to reveal his ninja uniform, first ninja streaked to an Asian Food Market in order to purchase some treats for himself so he could enjoy a hearty snack once it was all over. It's the same supermarket I go to in order to buy groceries when my voracious roommate devours everything in the fridge, and a favorite, convenient shopping location for all the Wind Rangers.

"Hmm, what should I buy?" he wondered to himself while wandering down the snack aisle, and grinned when packages of dried fish caught his eye. "Oh yeah! I love those. Let's see, there's a buy one get one free deal today. Dude, that's great." And he rubbed his hands together in glee before tossing two packages into his shopping basket.

Next the Wind ninja stopped by the seafood section and wondered if he should get a fish for me to fry, because I had been invited to a party this evening and needed to bring my own seafood. He then decided a crab feast would be more appropriate for tonight and asked the man behind the counter if he could get a couple of crabs on sale.

"Oh of course you're welcome to grab a few." Said the seller. "Here. Take this bag and pick, my dear boy. The pair of tongs are there if you don't want to grab them with your bare hands."

Dustin grinned before putting down his basket to grab the bag. His smile soon faded however, when he saw just how humongous the crustaceans really were. "Oh man! These guys are huge!"

"Not to mention a bit ferocious." Said a little girl next to him. "If I were you I wouldn't buy them because they'll bite."

"Don't be silly Denise." Said the girl's mother, and smiled at Dustin. "Crabs do not bite. Here, let me help."

"Gee, thanks ma'am." Dustin gratefully replied, and watched as Denise's mom expertly tossed a dozen live crabs into his large brown bag before grabbing a staple and sealing the top so the moveable feast could not escape. "You know, I've never brought live seafood before. Quite frankly, I'm not too fond of water fauna, especially the snapping, biting kind. If there's anyone who likes water and stuff, that would be my friend Tori."

At this time he was suddenly bowled over by two little five year old boys trying to play tag in the store. The brown bag went flying, but thankfully it landed in the arms of someone wearing a silver Wind Ninja Academy uniform. "Wh-What? Oh hi Laura. I was just doing a bit of shopping for you. The seafood feast's tonight so I got some crabs. Really big crabs. They're in the bag you're currently holding."

I looked at the bag, then at the sheepish Earth ninja lying down on the floor with a raised eyebrow that clearly said 'yeah, right'. "Uh huh. Did you forget we're supposed to be training now, Mr. Brooks? Now get off the floor…unless you're intent on wiping it you're your uniform."

Dustin shook his head and grinned before picking himself up. "Of course not. I wouldn't _dare_ upset Sensei or Cam now that I have made a commitment to my ninja training. But I know I'm going to be hungry later, and so decided to buy myself some snacks. Then, seeing how you need food tonight, decided to buy you something too. Anyway, I'm done shopping. We can go to training now."

I nodded. "Fine. At least you didn't get in trouble, which was what I feared. Cam's worried, so we should head over to the training area as quickly as possible."

"Okay. Lead the way." He meekly fell in line behind me as I made my way toward the checkout lanes.

Immediately after we had both gotten out of the store I had Dustin go to the forest right away so I could throw the live crabs into the sink inside Ninja Ops. No, I didn't get them out of the bag just yet, or Sensei would have freaked out if he woke up to find giant crustaceans scurrying all over the floor of the base. After this was done, I made sure I hadn't disturbed the master's meditation before ninja streaking out to join the others in the forest.

Meanwhile, Dustin was alone in the maze of pines. He looked around warily, hoping to see one of us pop up, but when no-one came, he began to realize he was truly on his own. But the feeling of dread soon dissipated as quickly as it had come when a bunch of squirrels suddenly scampered down from the trees to eye his small bag of peanuts, which was sticking out from his backpack. Eager to please them, Dustin gave away a few treats, then sat down to enjoy the snack with his new forest friends. Almost as soon as he dropped a peanut into his mouth however there was a loud crack and Dirt Boy found himself surrounded by a gang of Kelzaks.

"Oh man." He gasped, and let the backpack fall onto the leafy ground before getting into a fighting stance. All around him the squirrels scattered to hide in the trees. "Okay, come on now. I'm ready for anything."

"Ai!" screeched Lothor's minions, and charged at him. Dustin took one look at the closest Kelzak and ducked under its sharp red blades to deliver a roundhouse kick before getting up once more to punch a couple of soldiers behind him down. Unfortunately more soldiers suddenly appeared to join the fray, and the Earth ninja was a bit taken aback to find out that the gray beings Laura called 'Putrids' were among the new 'welcome to the forest' committee.

Suddenly the fight was interrupted by the sound of engines, and Dustin looked around to find his friends were coming toward him on sleek lightning bolt shaped motorcycles. "Whoa!" he managed to gasp as the vehicles came closer, and had to duck when they began to fire lasers at his enemies. "Holy cow!"

"Oh yeah, check out these cool new rides!" He heard Shane say as the red motorcycle jumped over him, and Dustin tilted his head a bit to see me zoom into view on my Wolf Savage Cycle. "Hey Laura, so nice of you to join us! Come and take a few slices of Kelzak pie!"

"I'm loving this!" Tori could be heard shouting as the three receded into the distance, leaving the Yellow Ranger alone again. As silence fell, the squirrels started scampering down the trees once more to feast upon the fallen peanuts that had spilled out of Dustin's backpack in the melee, only to retreat once more when a silver van decorated with the Wild Force logo on the hood came into view and stopped next to the astonished motocross enthusiast.

"Hey Dustin." Said Cam as he stuck his head out the window of the vehicle. "Judging by the look on your face I'm thinking you saw my new inventions."

"You mean those cool motorcycles?" Dustin wanted to know, and the Sensei's son nodded. "Oh dude, they were awesome!"

Cam sighed, then took off his glasses to wipe them on his green polo shirt. "They're called Tsunami Cycles. Now I'll have you know they aren't really ready to be ridden into battle yet, for there are still some minor adjustments that need to be made. This is exactly what I told them, but of course nobody, not even a former Wild Force Ranger, wants to listen to the 'guy with glasses'. And it appears I'll have to apologize to Laura for borrowing her former team's mode of transportation. I would have driven our new truck here but apparently somebody stole the remote for the 18 wheeler and got it out of the underground garage before I could."

"Speaking of the Tsunami Cycles, have you got one for me?"

"No, should I?"

"Oh come on! You're saying the motocross guy is the only one who doesn't get a Tsunami Cycle?"

Cam groaned, then rubbed his forehead before responding. "All right, all right. Fine. But the stolen truck's got your cycle in it, so I figure we're just going to have to wait like sitting ducks till it—" He was suddenly interrupted by a loud roar. "What in the world?"

As the two watched, the aforementioned Mobile Command Center appeared and began approaching them. Cam had already painted two Wind Ninja Academy logos on the truck, so everyone could tell it was the property of Ninja Storm, but for clarification I had, over the course of five nights, managed to paint the Power Rangers logo above the windshield. A swiveling satellite sat on the roof; this would pick up the signals coming from the currently stolen remote control.

The truck finally stopped alongside the Wild Force van, giving Cam a good view of the girl who was behind the driver's wheel. "Okay," the tech guy had to say, "what is going on here? You've got five seconds to explain yourself before something really bad happens."

"You must be Cam." Said the driver, who was really my friend Erica. "Laura told me you would need help, so here I am."

"Quite frankly I don't need help and you arriving is complicating things a lot. By the way, nice entrance you made, missy."

"Hey!" I had opted to quit fighting Kelzaks mid battle in order to come join the gang at this time. "Thanks for getting the truck here, Erica. By the way Dustin, there's a present for you inside this thing." As soon as I said this I took out the missing remote and pressed a button on it so the ramp lowered, allowing a yellow Tsunami Cycle to roll down to the ground. "Have fun."

"No, wait, you have to remember to—" Cam began to say, but before he could finish Dustin had morphed, jumped onto his new vehicle, and rushed off to find Tori and Shane. "Oh no. Laura—"

"Hakuna Matata!" was all I could say to the horrified tech geek as we all turned to watch the Wind Rangers battle the Kelzaks and Putrids in the forest.

To Cam's relief, all three ninjas returned with the bikes a few minutes later without breaking anything, which placated one of his fears. But unfortunately the bikes still needed to be fine-tuned, so Shane was told his team couldn't ride the vehicles for the next three days. This the trio could live with, and while we were loading the Tsunami Cycles back into the Mobile Command Center Erica took the time to introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Erica. I'm Laura's best friend and as I couldn't bear not knowing her secrets I begged to come along on this adventure. As I will be sticking around for quite a while I hope you guys don't mind me popping up every now and then until Lothor's defeated."

"Well, if Sensei doesn't mind having you around Ninja Ops, we won't mind." Shane answered. He paused to stifle a sneeze before continuing. Hmm, the pollen around here must be high…maybe he's allergic to flowers? "Anyway, thanks Erica. I—" He winced when Tori gave him a look, "I mean _we_ are grateful to get an extra pair of helping hands."

"Speaking of help, I need you to look at these Tsunami Cycle specs downloaded onto this CD and make an altitude chart for auto-jetting so the bikes are about as good as Laura's Wolf Cycle Dustin." Cam said loudly. "Don't try to play video games with it as I know you'll want to do, okay?"

"Okay." Dustin replied, and let the technician drop the disc into his open backpack. "I can do that. I'm not a complete doofus, you know."

"Well, here's your chance to prove it. Now everyone, hop into the van. We're going to hit the road before Lothor can send down more freaks."

"Van, what van?" I asked. "Hey Cam, I don't remember you coming to ask me for permission to borrow my car!"

"Yeah well, I don't particularly remember you coming up to me and begging 'oh please, can I take the Mobile Command Center out for a spin?' What's up with that?"

I laughed at that. "Good one Cam. Anyway guys, you heard him. Everyone pile in!" Without further ado the others boarded my vehicle, and Erica and I jumped into the truck to lead them all home. As our vehicles left the area, the Crimson and Navy Rangers stepped out from behind a tree.

"Let's go." Said the Crimson Ranger to his companion. "We've seen enough." They ninja streaked out shortly after this observation.

"And as I was saying," said the Crimson Thunder Ranger to Lothor back in the alien spaceship, "our plan to infiltrate the Wind Rangers and take them down one by one is on schedule. So don't rush us."

"Yeah, we know what we're doing." Navy added.

Lothor snorted before ordering Zurgane to come up. The samurai general soon appeared with a tray of cappuccinos most likely stolen from a local Dunkin' Donuts; these refreshments were quickly served to the Thunder Rangers and the evil emperor himself. To drink, the brothers retracted their visors and sat down on nearby benches. "So," Hunter snarled after taking a long sip, "you were saying?"

"I was about to say I am a 'results oriented genius'." Lothor remarked. "So I don't care about schedules. And speaking of the Wind Rangers, you had better break up that relationship with the Silver Wild Force Ranger, my dear lad. Can't have romance in the 'destroy the Earth' equation."

Hunter blinked, then frowned. "You're not serious. You put one finger on that girlfriend of mine and I'll deflect."

"Wherever you go I will go, brother." Blake added. "Even if it means joining forces with the Winds, whose leader has killed our parents."

Zurgane was shocked to hear this. "You wouldn't dare!" he snarled.

Hunter was adamant. "I dare. But I won't do it if you don't have any dumb ideas. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got business to attend to. The destruction of the Power Rangers Ninja Storm is at hand."

Lothor laughed. "_That_'s what I want to hear. Now go and do what you have to do. But I won't wait forever, so be quick about it. Zurgane!"

"Yes sir."

"Get me another cappuccino and turn on the TV. I want some entertainment before going to bed."

"Of course sir!"

Back in Ninja Ops, Cam immediately went onto the computer to monitor Blue Bay Harbor for signs of attack, while I made Shane spread fresh hay into the stalls while Dustin and Tori went out to exercise the horses. When asked why he was the best person for the job, I pointed out that with his powers of air Shane could stand the smell of manure (because he can blow the air outside if the smell gets too strong and the others can't). And so, with jobs all distributed and everyone hard at work, I did a little sword dance using the Crystal Saber Animus had given the Red Ranger a few weeks back, not only to show off my skills but also to test just how flexible I really was. Sensei looked on in approval, and he was in the middle of commenting on how graceful I looked when suddenly the whole chamber began to shake.

"Earthquake!" I immediately screeched, rushing for the computer. "Cam, what's going on?"

"Ouch, don't poke me with that thing!" Cam retorted, and I quickly tossed the Saber to Shane before grabbing hold of the desk to steady myself. "For your information there's a subterranean disturbance in the area. Some guy named Terramole's digging tunnels under the city."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked. "Shane, contact the others. Have them meet us on the battlefield."

Shane nodded while getting up off the pile of manure he had fallen onto during the 30 second earthquake. "Yeah, okay. But are you sure you want me to fight in this condition, Laura? I stink to high heaven at this moment."

Cam agreed this probably wasn't a good idea, but I didn't particularly care. "Oh, don't be silly, you guys. One whiff of Shane and that monster's bound to leave. You can all thank me later when Lothor's goons stop coming down to Earth simply because our Red Ranger smells so bad!"

"Hey, that was actually a stupid, crazy, but wonderful theory." Shane had to agree. "Brilliant…yet disgusting."

At this time Tori and Dustin suddenly rushed in with the horses in tow. Both Rangers were shaken, but there were no complaints while everyone prepared to morph. Well, almost no complaints.

"Ye-ow!" Dustin yelped when Shane walked in front of him to stand next to me. "Dude, you smell horrible!"

"Come to think of it, you _do_ stink." Tori added. "What happened, Shane?"

"Well, at least it wasn't a skunk that did this to me. Anyway, I'll explain later, okay? Right now our main mission is to get rid of Terramole. Laura, you coming or not?"

I shook my head. "Not. Have to put the horses back where they belong, you know. But I'll meet you in a minute at the rock quarry."

Shane sighed before making sure his teammates were ready for action. "Great. You guys ready?"

"Uh huh, Mr. Stinky."

"Ninja Storm, Ranger Form, ha!"

Rock Quarry

Terramole was waiting for us when we got to the rock quarry, probably because Zurgane warned him we would be showing up to wipe the floor, or ground, with him. As I had predicted, he did find Shane to be too smelly and immediately dove under the earth to escape the horrendous stench.

"You get back here!" Dustin instantly cried out. "Ninja Dirt Dive!" He quickly tunneled into the ground as well in order to get the monster, but the fleeing mole returned to kick him out of the rock quarry with a well aimed drill to the back. "Ouch! That hurt!"

Tori groaned as she helped the Earth ninja stand when it appeared he couldn't on his own. "Great day to throw your back out trying to subdue a mole, Dustin."

"Whaddya mean I'm hurt? Dude, I'm telling you right now I'm fine. I'm like a Slinky." Here he paused to strike a pose, allowing me to poke his spine. "Oh, that stung! Okay, maybe not a Slinky after all… Where's Cam when you need him?"

Storm Chargers

Later that day, Shane and I went out to help our boss Kelly unpack some boxes in the back room. As we slit open a shipment from Japan containing spare dirt bike parts, Blake, Hunter and a healed Dustin suddenly encroached upon our privacy, prompting Kelly to prepare a little lecture on 'How to Not Distract Employees From Work'. Thankfully though, we acted like we welcomed this distraction, allowing the somewhat disgruntled boss to let the boys stay with us while we continued to open packages.

"So you guys work here, huh?" Hunter asked. "By the way, Dustin's told me all about you. And in my opinion, it's all cool, man. Anyone who loves action sports is a friend of mine."

"Thanks." Shane answered. "Though I wouldn't say that Laura's hobby counts as an action sport."

"It isn't, but still, she's into motocross too, and my brother likes that." Blake added. He then noticed Tori coming into the room and grinned. "Hi."

"Hey." Tori answered. She looked a bit flattered by the swooning lad, whose face gave me the impression he had seen his true love. "Um, not meaning to be offensive, but could you please stop looking at me like a lovesick baboon?"

We all laughed at this, and Blake was forced to apologize. "Oh. Sorry. I kinda spaced out there for a second."

"Speaking of which, could we borrow Dustin for a moment?" Shane asked, and yanked his friend away from the Moto bros. "Ahem. Where were you today, Dustin? You were supposed to be at Ninja Ops training with Laura. And yes, Sensei's mad. Yes, he's doing that whisker twitchy thing again."

Dustin groaned, then grabbed Tori's wrist so he could head out the door with her. "Right. Right! Darn, I was so stupid!"

"And we should get going too, I think." I added. "Thankfully this was the last box. See you later guys."

"Yeah, bye." Shane also said before leaving. But then he realized he had forgotten something and slapped his head. "Aw geez. How could I have been so stupid! I—" He paused suddenly upon noticing Blake was jabbering away about that cute girl he had just saw.

"Man!" said the guy, "That Tori is fine!"

"Yeah, but why would she hang out with a goof like Dustin?" Hunter wondered.

Blake could only shrug as the Red Ranger behind him glared at the two Thunders with malice in his eyes. He swore to let me and Dustin know about this as soon as he joined us in Ninja Ops. "Who knows? Maybe she likes doing charity work! Laura too, I suppose."

The brothers laughed at this, prompting Shane to pull out his cell phone and punch in a few numbers. "Laura? There's something you should know about that boyfriend of yours…"

Ninja Ops

Sensei was upset Dustin had never shown up for ninja training earlier and ordered him to do 100 pushups on the low table in the center of the room immediately after the teen arrived for his punishment. As the 100th push up drew near, Dustin groaned before finishing his exercise and collapsed heavily upon the table, allowing the Rhino animal crystal to fall out of his uniform. A nimble Sensei then leapt off the table to retrieve it in his tiny little paws, allowing the exhausted Earth ninja to follow Shane into a corner of the room.

"So how well do you know Blake and Hunter?" The Air ninja asked haughtily. "All of a sudden they show up at the track, forcing you to forget your priorities. Ninja training comes first, remember that! Our individual action sports can always wait until Sensei's lessons are done, you hear me?"

"Dude, come on, it's a motocross thing." Dustin protested, and held out a hand so I could toss the Rhino crystal into his palm. The Yellow Ranger then used the crystal to poke Shane in the chest. "You've got those skater buds of yours and boy, are they total posers."

"At least I know what's important here." Shane answered, poking Dustin in turn with his Crystal Saber, whose hilt had been filled in with the Falcon animal crystal. "This is about the end of the world, Dustin! If you can't get that through your thick head right now, we're probably going to be doomed. Doomed! And then you won't ever have a chance to boast about your position as Guardian of the Earth. You shame me, Laura, and especially Sensei with your actions. I don't think Princess Shayla or Animus would have approved either, come to think of it."

"Aw dude." Dustin could think of nothing else to say now. "Sensei, help me out here."

But even the little guinea pig teacher currently watching the boys from the top of my head had to agree with Shane. "I'm sorry, but you can only help yourself with your actions Dustin, not your words."

"Aw dude! That's it, I'm going riding. I so cannot believe this!" And he chose that moment to storm up the stairs, leaving a trail of animal crystals (and two very disgruntled teenage boys in black and white sweaters) in his wake.

Motocross Track

As usual I found Dustin performing motocross jumps on the dirt. He would leap high, then continue on his way about four times before skidding to a stop by Blake and Hunter, who had been entertaining me the whole time with a little calico kitten the older Thunder had brought from a pet store in town. We noticed his presence almost immediately, and I put down the kitten to greet him.

"Hey. Everything okay?"

Dustin could only grin in reply as he took off the large backpack containing Cam's disc and dropped it onto the ground. His anger forgotten, the boy then patted his pocket to make sure the animal crystals were there before replying "Oh yeah. Everything's wonderful. Dude, the track this morning was awesome."

Blake and Hunter nodded, then thrust the kitten into their new friend's arms. It was Hunter who spoke next. "Cool, man. So, you up for a practice run against the two of us?"

The other boy immediately laughed in reply. "Hey, why wouldn't I be ready for that—" He was suddenly cut off when an earthquake shook the area and caused him to topple over. Screams could be heard as other people at the track panicked, and even I let out a long shriek before being caught by Blake, who used his arm to support me until the freak earthquake was over. Almost immediately after this incident both the Lunar Caller and Dustin's Wind Morpher started to make noise, prompting Hunter to grab us both before we could leave the scene.

"Freaky watches you guys have." He commented, and pointed at Dustin's device. "Does that have a compass?"

"Yeah, it's got a bunch of other cool programs in it. But now's not a good time to be discussing this, man. Laura and I gotta go, really."

"Aw, how come the two of you always gotta bail?"

Blake agreed. "Yeah. If you want to become a pro you should practice like one, right?"

"Sorry, but we've got something we've got to take care of." I apologized. "The cat?"

"Oh, keep the cat." Was the response. "We _did_ get her especially for you, Laura." After thanking them for being so kind, I hurriedly got into my car, threw Dustin the keys, and told him to 'step on it'.

Back at the track, Blake dusted cat fur off of his motocross gear, sneezed, then picked up Dustin's backpack from its forgotten place on the dirt mound next to the brothers' truck. "Well, well, well. Look what the clumsy dude left behind." Both boys then snickered as they watched other riders line up for their practice run on the track. Behind them, a little brown haired boy with blue eyes poked his little head out from the side of the van. He put on a disappointed face before dissolving into a cloud of golden dust.

"Man, where's Laura when you need her?" Shane yelled loudly after Terramole had kicked him hard onto the ground during an attempt to take him down with the Ninja Air Assault. "And Dustin is missing too! Don't tell me they forgot to come back from the MX park. That earthquake should have waken them up."

"Oh, don't you worry about your teammates, Red Ranger!" Terramole crowed. "Those airheads are nothing. Their Ranger days are over, and soon yours will be ancient history as well!"

"Hey, we're the only ones who can call them airheads!" Tori retorted while raising her Ninja Sword in self defense. Both Rangers then braced themselves for an attack, but suddenly Terramole himself fell hard onto his front, allowing his chest spike to be lodged tightly in a crack in the ground. As he was quite a bumbling fat dude, the monster couldn't get up again.

"Good, you're down." I teased him while Dustin shook his Lion Hammer in the air to claim victory. "Now stay down, like the good little mole you are."

"Storm Striker time!" It was Dustin who got to play the role of leader today. "100 tons of fun!" Here, the heavy metal ball weighing the specified weight dropped, and we all cheered after the monster blew up.

But as soon as you blow them up the monster will inevitably come back as a giant about the height of the Prudential Tower. But being the leader has its merits. Shane calmly but determinedly raised his Crystal Saber up to the sky, allowing the Ninja Zords to descend from the Animarium so they could assist his team. "All right. Storm Megazord formation, people. Ninja Zords, combine!"

"Oh yeah, gotta love the big combo." I heard Dustin say. After finding a suitable rock to perch on, I grabbed a video camera and started to record the new episode of 'Wild Ninja Adventures', which would later be given a title ("MOLE MADNESS"). At this time, the two giant clashed, and I laughed as the trio tried to beat a mega sized version of the 'Whack-A-Mole' game without a mallet of some sort.

"Again with the digging thing!" Shane could be heard complaining after five minutes had passed, and powered down the Lightning Mode he had initiated a minute ago. "I'm getting flustered."

"He's a mole Shane, digging the thing they love to do." Cam answered sarcastically. "I thought you would know that since Laura's been lending you her animal encyclopedias to read. Now hang on, okay? I'm sending you something that can help. Loading Power Sphere 2. It's called the Ram Hammer. Have fun." And here I heard a mechanical whirring which meant Dustin was getting his prize.

"Okay now, let's see if we've hit the jackpot." He said. "Ram Hammer, deploy! Power disc lock and drop." As usual Wind Ninja Academy symbol on the Storm Megazord opened soon afterwards to reveal a yellow ball with the number 2 painted on it. This in turn opened up to reveal a mallet shaped like a ram's head. "Yeah, baby, yeah! Now let's see what this thing can do."

"Why, is it really that special?" I had to ask. "It's only a hammer."

"No, it's not just any hammer." Dustin replied happily. "Hey guys, are you ready for this?"

"Ready!" They all shouted back, then Tori and Shane added 'Aim' and 'Hammer' to add a bit of comedy to this 'save the world' ploy. As the fireball that was Terramole shot itself skyward, I laughed from behind the camera and whooped for joy, while Erica and Cam inside Ninja Ops exchanged quick high fives. Meanwhile, back in Blue Bay Harbor, the anchorman on Channel 7 prepared to do a breaking news report on the latest Power Ranger victory. On the Animarium, Princess Shayla clapped her hands in delight, and the god Animus suddenly appeared in the sky above us.

"Whoa!" Dustin was the first to comment. "That's one huge Megazord!"

"It's Animus." Shane replied. "I've been reading about the Power Rangers Wild Force all weekend. This must be their god. He's the ancestor of the Wild Zords."

"Wow." Tori answered. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah well, it's great to see him back." I piped up. "So, is everything all right, old friend?"

Animus nodded gracefully, then turned to face me standing on the ground with that camera of Cam's in my hand. "For now. But you have trouble looming on the horizon. There's a storm coming, and it's a strong one."

I nodded back to show I understood, but Dustin didn't get it. "Okay, that's where you're wrong, 'cause I swear the weather guy promised us sunny skies for the entire week."

"Dude, he wasn't talking about the weather." Shane had to cut in before Animus could reply. "It's about the future. He's warning us that something bad is going to happen so we should be prepared for it. It's that simple."

"Oh."

"Sorry about that, dude, I mean, Animus. Thank you for the warning, we'll heed it to the best of our ability."

"See that you do. And Laura, I want you in charge of the new Rangers as much as possible. May the light of Animaria always show you the path to victory."

"Thanks, Animus."

"You have proven yourselves worthy to me, and this year it is Ninja Storm's fight. So I must go."

"Okay, whatever you say. But will I see you again?"

"There's no reason for me to return now. However, in times of need, one may seek me out for guidance at the Shrine of the Wild Zords." Here, he broke up into gold dust and flew up into the sky, leaving me to wonder what he could possibly mean by 'there's a storm coming', figuratively speaking.

Dustin later dragged the rest of us, sans Cam, out to the motocross track once again so we could see how he had improved over the course of the past week. Using Blake and Hunter's advice, he had managed to jump less and keep his bike on the dirt longer, which in turn cut his lap time a lot. As he came by to do a victory loop around us, Tori could not help but cry out as a glop of muddy dirt flew onto her new blue shirt, which I had brought for her at a local clothing store.

"Now that's cool!" he crowed, not noticing his friends were in the middle of cleaning up after themselves, and gave us all a thumbs up. "How was it, Laura? Have I improved?"

"I'm no motocross expert, but I can say that you have changed drastically over the past week." I answered truthfully, while Erica cheered for a Factory Blue rider who had just crossed the finish line. "So, you ready to head back? Or do you want to stick around for more?"

"I think one more lap ought to do it for today." Dustin replied, and turned his bike around. As he did so, Shane and Tori dashed to sit on the roof of my Wild Force van. They obviously didn't want to get sprayed by their friend again, and besides, my van's roof was high, so they could get a great view of the surrounding area. Shoes clunked onto the ground as the two bared their feet to welcome in the incoming breeze. From afar, two Rangers, one in crimson armor and one in navy, watched as Dustin began his third lap around the track.

"Enjoy. Have fun while you can." Said Navy Thunder.

"You have no idea what's coming." Added Crimson Thunder.

On the Animarium, Princess Shayla saw all this in her sacred pool and prayed for Animus to protect us from harm, while back down on Earth something fell from the sky and hit me on the head. Looking down, I noticed it was a wooden flute, and remembered with a groan the Deer hadn't heard 'Ode to Nature' in more than a year and I had an obligation to be the Princess' protector in the absence of Merrick Baliton until I was permanently relieved of my Ranger powers.


	5. Thunder Strangers, Part One

Thunder Strangers, Part One

Having been reminded of our former morning ritual back when I used to live in Turtle Cove with Alyssa Enrilé, I went up to the Animarium the next morning in order to play the flute once again for the Deer Zord. As usual Princess Shayla gracefully emerged from the pool to greet me, and we began to walk toward the Deer's favorite cliff together. It was just like old times, though instead of wearing the Lunar Wolf jacket—which was the only thing I had returned to her after Master Org had been defeated—I was in my silver Wind Ninja Academy uniform. Being proficient in both Air and Water techniques had earned me this color that, coincidentally, matched my Ranger suit.

"Oh get over it." I was forced to shout upon realizing that the Deer wasn't there to greet us this morning at the usual place. "Just because I left you and the other Wild Zords after the big battle with Master Org doesn't mean I have forgotten about everything that happened! Come on out and hear your favorite song, or I'll be forced to shoot—I mean, leave." I looked at Princess Shayla immediately after saying this and muttered: "I should stop watching those cop shows, they're starting to rub off on me."

As if on cue, the Princess and I suddenly heard a loud bellow coming from the sky, and the Deer Zord appeared. He looked extremely offended, so I quickly apologized, and explained that I didn't mean anything I said. Yelling was just a ruse meant to draw him out.

The Deer grumbled in reply, so I began to play the song at once. Everything went well, until the Lunar Caller started to howl. Immediately I stopped the tune to answer the phone, which startled the Princess and made the Deer angry again. But there was no choice. The call was urgent, and this meant a trip to Ninja Ops had to be made as soon as possible.

"So you are leaving?" she asked, and followed me as I rushed back to the portal in front of the Temple of the Wild Zords. "Wait! You forgot something."

"Eh, what's that?" When presented with my former Ranger jacket seconds later, I frowned, then donned the outfit to appease the Princess. "Okay. Looks like the Howling Wolf's officially back. Just for giving me back my jacket, I'll declare that the Predazord comes out of retirement today."

"Really?"

"Really." Here I placed one leg through the portal and grabbed the stone door so I could stay on the floating island for a few more seconds before the magical doorway pulled me back to Earth. "And it's about time too. Sobek's gonna chomp somebody if he doesn't see a battle soon. Anyway, duty calls. I'll see you and Mr. Grouch tomorrow morning." (Yes, I name my Wild Zords. There's nothing wrong with that, and my interest in Egyptian mythology can't be satiated.) With that, I let go of the door. After I left, a angry Deer bellowed to the sky. Man, can't that guy take a joke every once in a while? He's so sensitive!

Ninja Ops

"So, what's up guys?" I asked the two boys upon entering the small room that served as our base of operations, only to be ignored. "Hey. Look at me when I'm talking to you."

"Unbelievable." Shane's bewildered eyes were still glued to the screen.

"Yeah dude, that is so sick it's just wrong." Dustin added. He too was not believing his eyes. Whatever the two were checking out, it certainly had their attention.

"Check out the lines on that baby. See the way they move? Oh man, I can't believe it!" Here Shane proceeded to thump his head on the table. His hand also came down heavily, so two audible thuds could be heard colliding with the wooden surface.

"Okay, well, you guys had better not be doing anything illegal."

The two boys instantly paled. "Oh no," Shane went on to say, "we're not doing anything illegal."

"Let me see." At this time I sat down next to them and pried the laptop out of Dustin's hands. "Ooh, just as I suspected. The Tsunami Cycles, right?"

Dustin nodded. "That's right." Immediately after this Shane enthusiastically yelled 'yeah!' and put an arm around my shoulders.

"Lovely. But you should ask Cam first before touching any technology he owns. He tells me to tell you that he would appreciate it if you wouldn't just cruise in here without permission." That was why my phone had rung. Cam didn't feel like disciplining the guys himself, so he had begged me to do this for him.

"Sorry." Here the boys fell silent and watched as I typed a few commands. Suddenly the alarm went off and the horses started having panic attacks. At the same time the words 'System Down' flashed across every screen in Ninja Ops.

I groaned, then stopped my fingers from flying over the keyboard. "Boy, Cam's going to freak when he sees this. Dustin, if I remember correctly he gave you that backup disc. Care to hand it over now?"

Dustin nodded, then reached for his backpack, only to find it wasn't there anymore. As we both watched, a expression of pure horror appeared on his face. "It's in my backpack."

The evil space ninja emperor flashed a big grin at his servants before commenting on the disc he had been given by the two Thunder Rangers. "The Wind Ranger's Greatest Hits. Are all my favorites on there?"

"If you mean the Tsunami Cycle serenade and the Wolf Savage Cycle Waltz, then yes." Crimson Thunder answered. Beside him, his younger brother folded his arms before taking back the disc and running it through a CD player. At once holograms of the three new bikes and my own vehicle appeared in the air above them, spinning at a moderate pace. "Using these models, we can now create our own bikes. And according to my calculations the Wind Zords won't stand a chance against our mighty Thunder Megazord." Here his voice became more serious. "But we _do_ plan to retreat if the Wild Zords show up to lend the Wind Rangers a helping paw, fin, or claw. It's not worth standing up to the Lunar Wolf Ranger whose powers are older than our own. Now, if you'll excuse us—"

"Wait." Here Zurgane came up to his master. "Sir, I have a plan. If we attack the place they call Storm Chargers—"

"Zurgane, Zurgane, Zurgane. How many times must we go over this? A Ranger's power can only be destroyed when he is in his full Ranger form! Now do you see why your plan is so completely ridiculous?" Here Lothor stood up to bend forward and make his general cower in fear. As the two bent their bodies, the Thunder Rangers too leaned over to watch the action sideways. "Why don't you go take a vacation? Go to Onyx and have a beer, then come back here to relax in my shadow until it's the right moment. Now Thunder Rangers, why don't we put our heads together and see what we can come up with?"

Meanwhile, in the Storm Chargers store, Dustin was tossing things off the shelves behind the checkout counter as he frantically searched for his lost backpack. First my stack of organized profit charts got scattered, then Shane's skateboard went careening into the wall, and finally two motocross trophies won by Blake and Hunter wound up on their sides on the floor next to a lightly snoring Dilly.

"Whoa, what is going on here?" Kelly asked when she suddenly saw CDs being tossed into the air. "Dustin! Do you understand the concept of cleaning up? Things go onto the shelves. They do not belong on the floor so some poor old lady taking her grandkid around the store can slip and break a leg?"

"Oh, whoops!" here Dustin stood up with one of the trophies in his hand and placed it on the counter in front of him. "Sorry. I uh, can't find my backpack anywhere. Searching for it is driving me nuts."

Kelly instantly felt some sympathy for him when she heard this, and proceeded to follow him as he made his way toward the back of the store. Then, as she looked on, Dustin chose to dive into a rack of clothes, startling a teenager who was in the process of picking out a red shirt. "Sorry, my employee didn't mean to startle you. Anyway, you can stop looking around now because I know you'll find it Dustin. And there's something I've been meaning to ask you. Have you by chance seen Blake or Hunter lately?"

"No, and that's a bummer, dude. They blew me off last week and I haven't seen them since. Maybe Laura's double dating them."

"Laura, double dating two guys? That's unusual, because she's never really opened up to strangers before. Ever since she came all the way from Turtle Cove to work here, she's always been a 'lone wolf'. So. I finally got enough money to put together a regional motocross team next week. And to top it off Blake and Hunter have got to be in that team. They're the best riders around town, not to mention I'm so psyched to be sponsoring this."

"Okay." Here the Earth ninja ran a hand through his hair before pointing to himself. "And would this team also include me?"

Kelly's face instantly fell at this, leading Dustin to believe his luck had run out. "Oh, I'm sorry. But I only have a budget for 250's and these guys have experience on those big bikes. You understand, right?"

Dustin nodded, then noticed me waving a big sign that said 'Check the Skate Park!' from behind the checkout counter. "Yeah, I need to check there. Anyway, got to go Kelly. Hunter's number is in Laura's phonebook in the back room, if you want to contact him." With that, he proceeded to run out the door and ninja streak to the skate park.

"So it's not here at the skate park either?" I asked, and all three Wind Rangers shook their heads. "Man! Dustin, you doofus, how could you be so stupid?" As if on cue, the cat Hunter had brought for me—Shimmer was her name—meowed and leapt out of my arms to chase a little ant scurrying over the hot pavement.

"Laura, calm down before you hurt yourself." Shane soothed, which prompted me to snatch his skateboard away. Then, as he looked on, I proceeded to skate in circles around him. "Think, dude. Where else have you—ow!—been?" His question was broken up because I had bumped his ankle while completing a third circle for no apparent reason.

"The track!" Dustin's hands instantly flew up into the air and he started to jog toward the road. "Let's go!"

Beep! The Wind morphers went off at this time, prompting Shane to stop in mid-jog and answer the incoming call. "Go for Shane."

"Shane, I'm sensing strange energy readings at the quarry. It's close to a dig site, so be careful out there. You don't want to get in trouble with the paleontologists."

"Okay. Is it Kelzaks we're talking about here?"

"No, I don't know what it is. But you had all better morph just to be safe. We don't need accidents this early in your Ranger career."

"Got it. Everybody ready?"

"Ready!"

"Ninja Storm, Ranger form, ha!"

"Wild Access!"

The quarry turned out to be empty, so I was all ready to power down and resume the scavenger hunt for Dustin's backpack, when crimson and navy streaks suddenly appeared in front of me and knocked us all down like bowling pins. After the two had finished this nasty assault, they then showed themselves, and I warned everyone that it wasn't good to doubt Cam because 'he's never going to be wrong'.

"You can remind us of that again later." Shane answered, then asked the two Rangers why they were not on our side. "C'mon dudes, we're all Rangers here, right? Where's the love?"

"Obviously you didn't get the memo." Said Crimson Thunder.

"Yeah." Navy Thunder added. "Old Rangers out, new Rangers in." Here the Rangers came toward us for a second assault, but I managed to stop the two by blocking their advance with a horizontal Lunar Cue. Two voices saying 'oof' could be heard as the evil Rangers were prevented from ninja streaking further with my long weapon. "Now _that_ was uncalled for, Lunar Wolf Ranger. Lothor would have been pleased if you joined his side, for you're obviously very powerful. No-one has ever been able to stop us mid-streak before."

"Oh, yes." I grinned when I heard his praise before whacking him on the head with the extended Cue in cue mode. "I _am_ powerful. Now have a taste of my awesome animal power! Laser pool!" At once a green rectangle trapped the Thunder Ranger so I could prepare to deliver my signature attack, but Crimson Thunder managed to break himself free just before the crystals were even shot. "No way!"

"Yes way!" It was at this time that the Thunder Rangers brought out their Thunder staffs and began advancing toward us.

"This is bad."Dustin sounded scared and uncertain when he said this. "They have sticks."

"Really big sticks." Tori added. She also sounded a bit nervous. "By the way, how did they get free, Laura?"

"Why are you asking me? I have no clue either!" As I said this I backed up till I was standing between Tori and Shane. I then crouched, returned the Cue to its holster, and startled scratching at the ground with the claws on my gloves like a cat. But before anything else could happen, the two Thunder Rangers teleported themselves out in a flash of golden light.

Back at Ninja Ops, the Wind Rangers went up to talk to Sensei about this new threat, and I went over to open the stalls because the horses were anxious to get some exercise. While leading them in circles around the base from the back of Silver Moon, I heard Sensei tell us that the new Rangers fought in the style of the Thunder Ninja Academy, which prompted more questions to pour out of the three ninjas' mouths. Shane then finished the Q & A by saying that the Thunders obviously had plans for us since we weren't finished off back at the quarry, and that he was going to find out what was next for us.

"Oh no, don't even think about that." Hearing my voice the Rangers all turned in unison to find me near the stairs. "Thinking about it will only make it worse, not to mention I'm going to have nightmares involving Zen-Aku again if you all keep whining about how the Thunders kicked our butts. So let's focus on something else. How does a trail ride sound?"

A moment later, all three ninjas rushed to grab a horse, and Sensei looked on in silence as the sound of hooves echoed on the stone steps of the base before fading into the distance.

My fellow Winds and I enjoyed exercising the horses, to say the least. It gave us not only peace of mind but also something to do—something that didn't involve saving the world yet again from the clutches of evil. But no sooner had Shane suggested we turn back than Cam suddenly came online to tell us the quarry was now occupied by Zurgane.

"He's thinking about trashing the dig site, so you all had better ninja streak over there as soon as possible." He added. "Take the horses along—they won't mind—and go get him before anything else happens. Speaking of the quarry, what is it, like a monster-con over there?"

"So it's just Zurgane?" Dustin wanted to know as he turned Desert Storm around so both of them faced the direction of the quarry. "That's strange, right Tor?"

"Yeah, doesn't he usually come equipped with an evil alien sidekick?" Tori agreed. Shane then said we were on our way. Seconds later flashes of red, yellow, blue and silver bounced out of the forest, leaving behind two startled chipmunks and a murder of angry crows.

Once again we were back where we started, facing Lothor's most experienced and annoying general. "Rangers, Rangers, Rangers, that's all I ever hear these days." Zurgane grumbled as we galloped toward him with all weapons drawn. Everyone had their handy sword raised in the air, ready to slash anyone in our way, and Shane had the additional Crystal Saber to give him extra firepower. Like the encounter with the Thunder Rangers, Zurgane was beamed up just before anyone even got close to him, and we were all forced to pull the horses up sharp. Dustin then nervously started circling the area looking for more trouble, only to be knocked off his steed by crimson and navy streaks. Enraged, the Yellow Ranger hopped back on after checking himself for damage, then wanted to know what the big deal was.

"Yeah dude, that wasn't nice." Shane added. "You could have harmed both the animal and its rider! And I thought Rangers were helpful people, not psychos."

"Well, I'm sorry to say that since we're not on your side we can do whatever we want." Crimson Thunder growled. Both he and Navy then lifted up their right arms slightly and caused two new Tsunami Cycles decorated with the Thunder Ninja Academy insignia to appear. "The horses are nice, but check these sweet new rides out and weep, Rangers!"

"Hey! Those are my Tsunami Cycles!" Cam's voice startled us at first but Shane quickly regained his composure by agreeing before shutting off all communications so we wouldn't be distracted again. The Thunders then chose that moment to rush forward on their bikes--creating crimson and navy energy blasts in the process--which in turn knocked us all off our horses. The smell of singed spandex suits and manes soon rose into the air and permeated our noses at this point, but thankfully no-one seemed hurt.

"Good, everybody looks okay." I said with relief. "But how did these guys get their hands on Dustin's disc? And do you guys smell something burning? God, it's awful."

"The something that's burning is _us_, you doofus." Shane answered in an aggravated voice, and I noticed my suit was the only one not smoking with a sheepish grin. "You're lucky enough to be spared the wrath of the Thunders. I guess even with our new powers we couldn't stand up to these guys."

"But you guys never used your powers." I pointed out. "Because most of you don't have Crystal Sabers to channel the mighty animal crystals. However—"

"This is so easy it's almost boring." Navy cut in, forcing me to shoot him a glare—one he could not see.

"These guys could never compete with the Thunder Ninja Academy." Crimson agreed. "I thought their Sensei taught them better than this. Sky of Wonder!" Here he raised his morpher toward the sky.

"Power of Thunder!" Navy too raised his arm with the morpher in it.

Explosions rent the air around them as the two Thunders called upon new allies, and before long two insect Zords burst into the scene-the Crimson Insectizord and the Navy Beetlezord. Both Rangers then proceeded to enter their respective cockpits, and Crimson could be heard saying that by the time the sun set they would be the last ninja Rangers left on the planet. But Shane, Tori, and Dustin weren't about to let anything happen, and so fought back in their own Ninja Zords. While the Hawk Zord distracted Crimson, the Dolphin and Lion teamed up to take on Navy. However, the Thunders won every round, so I had no choice but to ask the Rangers to 'bust out the Megazord on these punks'.

"Finally, a little something from the has-beens!" Crimson laughed as he watched the Storm Megazord formation in front of him. "Bro?"

"Let's turn them into never-weres! Thunder Megazord!" The brothers too joined forces, and before long Cam and I were both gawking at this change of events with bulging eyes.

"Dude." Was all I could say as the two giants began to battle, and looked down at my three animal crystals. "Well, I had better toss myself into the mix before somebody gets hurt." With that I tossed the crystals into the air and used a Laser Pool to aim them at the sky. "Wild Zords, descend!"

Right on cue the transparent road leading down from the Animarium appeared in the sky and the Wolf, Hammerhead, and Alligator ran down on it at breakneck speed. After getting to the scene, Hammy and Silverclaw rushed to hit the Thunder Megazord on the arms, and Sobek managed to chomp on one of the legs. Sparks flew as the animals started clawing and biting the insects, and the Winds began to cheer. "Arrgh!" Crimson Thunder could be heard saying.

"Get off, you stupid reptile!" Navy shouted immediately afterwards.

"Yeah, chew them up, guys." I said loudly, then crossed my arm so that the clawed gloves hovered over the wolf insignia on my uniform. "Wild Zords, combine!"

The Alligator's head bent and its lower jaw snapped into its chest. Its legs extended, and it slowly flipped up to stand on its hind feet. The Wolf and Hammerhead then removed their tails and twisted their hindquarters around to reveal tubes, which snapped into the openings in the Alligator's sides once the front paws folded up onto its back in order to accommodate them. The tail of the Alligator snapped off to reattach to the Hammerhead tail on its shoulders, and a wolf shaped head appeared from the Alligator's neck. The head then opened its jaws to reveal a humanoid face. Finally, the Wolf's tail attached to the Alligator's forehead while I entered the cockpit to take control. "Predazord, awaken!"

"_Now_ would be a great time to retreat, bro." Navy instantly said when he saw that I had joined the battle. "The Wild Zords look powerful all right."

"But the Storm Megazord can still get trashed." Crimson pointed out. They then got up just as Shane was thanking Cam for giving us a 'last minute, save our butt' device. "Hey, check this out. We got the Power Disc, losers."

"You got the _what_?" I screeched, and hit their Megazord a few times with my Gator Staff. They buckled under the weight of the massive tail but did not go down, and I groaned when Crimson showed me an image of the stolen disc. "Shane, Dustin, Tori, get out of here. Now! This is no laughing matter."

"Power Disc, lock, and drop!" At once a sphere with a big 04 on it came out of the Thunder Megazord's chest. A weapon known as the Spin Blade then popped out, allowing the evil Rangers to start trashing the Wind Megazord. "And he's at the 50!"

"The 40!"

"The 30!"

"Now for a little touchdown dance on their heads!" Here the Spin Blade unleashed its most devastating attack, and I screamed as the Wind Rangers' Megazord toppled over.

"Revolver Phantom!" Anguish was quickly replaced by anger as I unleashed the deadly attack of my own Megazord to slice through the thick armor of the Thunder Megazord. I then inflicted more damage with a Predator Wave beam—this attack had never been forgotten by the cleansed Dark Wild Zords—leaving the bad guys in a deplorable condition. But it must be said that Crimson and Navy were determined as well as resilient. Without any help, the two brothers humbly limped off, leaving only a message of revenge in the air. Inside the cockpits of the smoking Storm Megazord, the Rangers slowly lost consciousness, and my Wild Zords broke apart to howl and roar for help.

Blake and Hunter heard the commotion almost as soon as they had demorphed and returned the Thunder Zords to Lothor's docking bay for repairs. They could have ignored us, but Blake was too worried about Tori to even care that he had just fought her and her teammates earlier. There was no choice but to follow his brother, so Hunter tagged along. They promptly galloped to the site of the disaster on horses Lothor had sucked up that fateful day when the school was attacked, stopping only to yank a startled Kelly out of her Storm Chargers van. "We think they need help!" Blake apologized to her as they dashed through the woods toward the smoke.

Back on the ship, Lothor started to laugh. "Round 1 is in the books." He gleefully announced. "With the Zords out of my way, it's only a matter of time!"


	6. Thunder Strangers, Part Two

Thunder Strangers, Part 2

Sensei twitched his whiskers and put on a worried expression as he and his son ran scans on the pieces of Zord wreckage scattered over the green meadow. The entire area was still smoking and a few flames licked the charred armor of the Storm Megazord as it lay there, immobile, unable to move. "Any sign of the Rangers?" he inquired, and Cam shook his head as he watched my Wild Zords disappear. They had decided to return to the Animarium for a well deserved rest. The Sensei's son sighed, then headed for the kitchen to fix himself a cup of tea.

Back at the site of the disaster, the Ninja Storm team were preparing to mount their horses. After powering down, a exhausted Shane heavily landed on Blazing Lion with a loud thud before glancing at me, as if wondering what to do next. With a sigh, I turned toward the path in front of us and pointed at the road. Three exhausted Rangers quietly followed.

Almost as soon as we were out of the forest, Blake and Hunter came up on steeds of their own. At once I saw their horses' reins happened to be navy and crimson respectively, but pretended to take no notice when Shane appeared to be oblivious to that plain sign. _They_ are the Thunder Rangers?I exclaimed in my head. Animus' horns, had I but known, I would have asked them to join us in the fight against Lothor long before they became evil.

"Are you guys all right?" asked Kelly when she noticed us, and we all nodded in response. "I heard on the radio there was some sort of alien attack just before the boys here dragged me unceremoniously out of my van."

"Hey Tor." Said Blake, who looked surprised to see the Blue Wind Ranger sitting there on Sapphire. "You never told us you had horses too."

Tori smiled, then shook her head. "No, we didn't."

"Well, Mom and Dad taught us how to ride when we were both very young. The horses were our only means of transportation until a friend of ours introduced us to dirt bikes and pickup trucks. Even after getting our own car, we still kept the animals because we had practically lived on them until then. This is Lightning, and Hunter's on Thunder. So. You wanna tell us the names of your animals, while we're on the topic?"

"Mine's Blazing Lion." Shane spoke up. "Dustin's on Desert Storm, Tori's got Sapphire, and Laura here's borrowing Silver Moon from our friend Cam. Anyway, you ever wonder why housing around here's so cheap? That's because these the Power Rangers are blowing them up every day in their attempts to kill evil space aliens."

"Speaking of UFOs, shouldn't we contact somebody?" Kelly interjected, and had to put a hand on Hunter to steady herself when his horse lurched forward to greet Shane's stallion. Hunter instantly yelled 'whoa', but Thunder didn't back up until he had made friends with Blazing Lion and acknowledged the commanding presence of Silver Moon, who was the 'leader' of the Wind herd. Judging by the chestnut's body language, I could tell Thunder, though younger than my own steed, was dying to assert his own authority because he was the head stallion of the Thunder herd and wanted to challenge Silver Moon for the right to those beautiful mares Tori and Dustin were sitting on. "I mean, we should definitely notify the police, the FBI, the CIA—" Here she was interrupted by the sound of me clearing my throat loudly.

"Don't worry about a thing, folks. I'll personally see to this mess. Kelly, calm down and go back to Storm Chargers knowing the city isn't going to be attacked anytime soon. And Blake, Hunter, you guys should head home too. Those horses look like they've been out for a long run, and I'm sure they deserve a break."

"Right." Blake answered hesitatingly, and slowly turned his horse around. There was no doubt that he was still worried about Tori. At the same time Hunter gave me a quizzical look but I ignored him. Instead, I nodded once before signaling for the others to fall in line behind me. The Thunders obediently withdrew with little bows at this time, and we parted ways.

Meanwhile, on Lothor's ship, Marah and Kapri were watching their uncle's face turn the color of a ripe cherry. "What is it with those two?" he wanted to know after shutting off his TV screen. He was talking about Blake and Hunter, and he was quite peeved because they had just stopped to talk with us in the forest. "They go bad, they turn good, they go bad again! Can't evil people stay evil these days? And why are the Rangers still alive?"

"Maybe because Laura's got special powers?" Marah answered, and the evil space ninja emperor groaned. "Okay, wrong answer, I get it."

"Yes, wrong answer." Next, Lothor turned to Zurgane, who was planning to attack us while we were defenseless now. "Do you listen to anything I say? What did I tell you about the Power Rangers?" When no-one answered him, he gave a hint, but still there was no response. "Anyone, anyone?! Speak up or I'll assign somebody to talk. Marah! Tell me, what is the answer?"

The girl looked down, then put on a sheepish smile. "Uh, it has to be really painful?"

"Totally incorrect, but thanks for playing our game." Lothor's eyes then rested on the two nieces before a laser beam headed their way. The girls instantly ducked, but Choobo, being the slow, bumbling dude that he is, ended up eating a wonderful laser beam sandwich that left him smoking and burnt.

"Ow, it stings, it stings!" he cried, only to be silenced by a glare from his master.

"It's a laser beam, it's supposed to hurt. Now, I've said this once but I'll say it again: a Ranger can only be defeated if he's in his full Ranger form! And as you guys are all incompetent, I hereby forbid anyone from doing anything until I give permission. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" Choobo and Zurgane instantly chorused. The girls could only nod as they ran to cower behind the still whimpering Choobo.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, Dustin began complaining about how the Thunders had been totally brutal and that he believed his morpher was toast.

"More like fried extra crispy chicken wings." I joked while studying the Yellow Ranger's device, and watched as a wire that had been sticking out of the morpher suddenly sucked itself back like a person slurping up a strand of spaghetti. "But thankfully the morphers appear to be reconstructing themselves, saving me the trouble of calling down the Deer Zord for a dose of healing pixie dust."

"Wait, hold up." Shane interrupted. "You're telling me that there are Wild Zords with powers not man-made? Ones not created by humans?"

I nodded. "Of course. The Deer Zord has the innate power to heal humans and Zords. Yes, they are also not man-made creations. Anyway, Cam implemented self-reconstruct modes into every morpher. This is a good thing, because the Deer can't come down to heal us after every battle, and I seriously would hate my job if I had to sing 'Ode to Nature' for it every day more than once. However, the Megazord is going to need help, because that doesn't have the innate ability to reload all systems by itself. Our tech dude is gonna freak when he sees just how much damage you guys took, but I would say everything's not lost."

As I predicted, Cam was not to happy to hear that the Rangers had lost to the Thunders. "Well," he said in his sarcastic voice while typing a few codes on his keyboard, "you've managed to reduce years of technological advance into a pile of scrap metal in a single afternoon. I also will not neglect to mention that the Zords are so badly damaged it'll take me at least a full 24 hours to get everything back online again." He sighed, and was about to add some more negative comments when Sensei coughed from his seat on the mini couch Erica had pulled out of her old dollhouse a week ago. Staff in hand, Sensei looked as stern as always, so Cam quickly apologized for being somewhat rude before waving his hand at the computer screen.

"Thankfully the auto-retreat functions Laura suggested I implement into the morphers when they were in their prototype stages works and will allow the reactors time to reset the holographic portals. I've also engaged the self-reconstruct functions, so our arsenal should be back up and working in no time."

"That's great." I answered, and was startled by a tap on the shoulder. "Yes?"

"You dropped this." Dustin replied. He held out a hand with the Bison animal crystal in it, and I groaned upon noticing my pockets had holes in them before placing Danny's former gem into the box which formerly held the Rangers' current animal crystals.

"Man, now I have to add shopping for new clothes to my list."

"And I need to add new vocabulary into my head, or so it seems." Dustin responded. "I didn't understand half of what Cam just said."

"In simple language, they're fixing themselves." Cam replied. Here he brought up a spinning 3D model of the Thunder Megazord on screen for us to study. "Check this out, guys. The technology used to create the Thunder Zords mirror our own. Seems to me they're not as different from us as we thought they are."

"And since Mr. Geek here has modified the Wind Zords so that they can combine with the Wild Zords—a combination I've never tried but would like to see in action—this opens up the possibility that Thunder Zords can possibly combine with the Wild Zords too. So if they're on our side—"

"Then we could have ultimate fighting power, possibly enough to kick Lothor out of the universe." Dustin finished happily. "Oh dude, that would be awesome, Laura. But—" Here he became sullen again. "They're not on our side. Which means we're still in deep trouble."

"Yeah, and it seems strange that these Thunder Rangers work for Lothor." Tori added.

"Not to mention Zurgane disappeared just as these two showed up." Shane interjected. Beside him, I bit my lip and let my fingers tighten their grip on the Lunar Cue. "What do you think, Sensei?"

"I suspect that as with all evil alliances, there is dissension in their ranks- dissension that can be used to our advantage, when the time is right." The little guinea pig answered in his wise voice, making me nod in agreement. I knew full well that when Master Org started to show signs of weakness Toxica and Jindrax had tried to plot his downfall, and that allowed us Wild Force Rangers to push forward with our plan of attack more readily. This ushered the downfall of all Orgs, which in turn lead up to the final battle.

"Okay, but we are going to feel totally helpless until Cam fixes everything." The Blue Ranger moaned. "For now Laura's the only one with her powers still intact. But why?"

"Because the Predazord is one of the more powerful Wild Zord combinations and can withstand quite a beating. However, I should warn you that it is not the most effective combination if you look at the—ow—pig, I mean big picture. (Bit my cheek here, which means I probably need to eat more veggies. There's a silly belief out there that if you bite your tongue you need to eat more meat, if you bite your cheek you are lacking veggies in your diet) Animus is by far the one guy that can possibly save us all, but he's a god, and can't be looked to for help all the time. So, I take it we're just going to have to go back to our normal lives till everything's back to normal, Sensei?"

Sensei nodded his little head. "Of course. We cannot allow Lothor to suspect anything out of the ordinary. But be careful of who you talk to. If the Thunder Rangers can steal the Tsunami Cycles there is no telling what they might try to steal next."

Hearing him say this, we all bowed to show him our respect before obediently trooping up the stairs one by one to return to our daily lives.

Tori and I hit the road for the beach soon afterward because the weatherman's broadcast predicted that the water would warm enough for a relaxing swim. But before we could even get to the beach we were stopped by two particular young men on horses as well. Both stallions and riders were soaked, and by the looks of it they appeared to have taken a swim in the ocean just moments ago.

"Hey, Blake, Hunter, you guys are here too?" Tori asked in a surprised tone, and the two brothers laughed in response.

"Hey Tor." Blake answered with a smile, then bent over Lightning's bare back to remove his sneakers. As he did so, a good amount of seawater spilled out of them and splashed onto the sand below. "Oh man. Those were brand new too."

"Guess we had better go barefoot next time, bro." Hunter commented. He then turned to face us. "Wow, what a surprise. We didn't expect to see you two again anytime soon."

I nodded, then wrapped an arm around Tori and pulled her close. "Same here. By the way boys, those necklaces you're wearing look fantastic."

Hunter grinned when he heard that. "Gee, thanks. Glad we're not in the 'dumb jock' category or anything."

"Uh huh. Hey, I just wanted to thank you guys for meeting us back there in the forest. We appreciate what support you gave us."

"No problem." At this moment a wrinkled post-it note was slapped upon my forehead. "Here's Blake's number. If I'm not available for some reason, call him, 'kay?"

"Yeah, sure." Here I paused to peel off the post-it note and grimaced as many tiny skin cells came off with the sticky paper. "Ow. Anyway, we'll catch you two later. Tori's dying to surf." And with that I started to push the Blue Ranger toward the water. "See you guys later."

"Yeah, see you." Blake called back. After we had gone, his brother came closer and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Wow, smooth." He was told. "You've got to show me your moves sometime." Both siblings then headed away from the beach, and Hunter pointed to his crimson truck and gray 2 horse trailer sitting at the far corner of the parking lot. "Race you there, bro. I challenge you to a race, in which trotting is the only gait allowed."

"A trotting race it is." Blake answered with a smirk. "You're on!"

Minutes later the brothers found themselves back at Storm Chargers to pick up a few forms from Kelly, who had reserved some so people seeking to enter motocross races could fill them out. As she was listing the deadlines they would have to meet in time for the particular race they wanted to enter, Dustin and Shane were in the back room having their own private conversation.

"Dude, you have changed that motor oil on your bike like, four times already." Shane pointed out to his childhood friend. "Any more and Laura would freak. You do know that pollution of the earth is what causes the Orgs to rise again, right? I have no intention of repeating the experience with Barbed Wire Org."

"Orgs, what Orgs?" Dustin asked, forgetting for the moment that it wasn't just Lothor out there waiting to wring our necks.

"Dude, don't tell me you don't remember what Laura told us. If Barbed Wire Org came back, then this completely evil guy named Master Org must be back too. He's the villain the Wild Force Rangers fought last year in Turtle Cove. Thankfully though, we haven't been hearing from these monsters since I was attacked on our second day as Rangers. Hey, is that Blake and Hunter?"

"Huh, what are they doing here?" Dustin wanted to know, but went silent so they could hear what the Brothers were saying.

"So." Kelly was saying to them. "Fill out these forms, and make sure your parents sign them too because you're only minors."

"Oh, we don't live with our parents." Hunter quickly answered, and Kelly instantly put on a look of disappointment.

"Aw. That's just too bad. Well then, any other guardian you have will suffice. But remember, tomorrow's the deadline, so have them ready then." In response, the two brothers nodded before heading out.

Dustin groaned as they did so, then asked Shane if the two would be willing to head to the track. Shane shook his head, obviously displeased with even thoughts of motocross, before watching as Dustin ran out yelling 'hey, wait up!'. He paused, as if uncertain what to do next, then started to write a few notes down on a piece of paper nearby. This is what he compiled.

THINGS TO DO

#1. Go home and wash motor oil off of shirt.

#2. Pray the Orgs will be the least of our worries.

#3. Do research on the Wild Force Power Rangers. Call Cole's number in Laura's phonebook if necessary.

Meanwhile, Zurgane had sent his newest monster, Amphibidor, down to Earth. Surprised but happy to see that Blue Bay Harbor happened to be right next to a large lake filled with swimmers and volleyball players, the frog monster immediately unleashed little tadpole-like leeches called Polytrons into the water. Almost immediately the Polytrons started to drain the lake, forcing Tori and me to ninja streak out of the water and confront this threat.

"Remember, you don't have your morpher, so don't—" I began, only to be interrupted when Tori tried to morph. As expected, she didn't succeed because her device was still in Cam's hands. "Ahem! What did I just say? Geez, it's not morphin' time for you today, Malibu beach bunny!"

"Sorry." Tori replied in a sheepish voice, and I sighed in exasperation before dropping into a fighting stance. The Blue Ranger quickly retreated at this time because I was at the moment the only Ranger capable of morphing, and just as I was about to shout 'Wild Access' a navy dirt bike flew over my head and hit Amphibidor on the nose before turning around and heading for us. "Blake?!"

"Bl-What?!" Shocked, I couldn't help but let my jaw drop as Blake made another attempt to hit the monster, only to be blasted hard onto the sand. It was then that my shocked expression became one of sympathy. "Ooh, that is going to hurt! Yo, distract that frog while I go administer first aid!"

"Why me?"

"Because you're closer to the freak!" I shouted back, and winced upon seeing Blake had those Polytrons stuck firmly on his chest. Trying to pry them off didn't work, as the creatures appeared to be stuck fast. At this time Amphibidor blasted Tori off her feet, and disappeared soon afterwards. "Oh great. Where's Dr. Cam when you need him?"

Cam was so mad upon seeing Blake being brought into Ninja Ops that he unintentionally broke a wire inside Dustin's morpher in two and brought the screwdriver down so hard he cracked both Shane and Tori's morphers as a result. As the Deer Zord was now the only solution to the broken morphers, there was no other choice but to go up to the Animarium. Luckily Princess Shayla was awake and still remembered how to tend to injured Rangers, so we left Blake in her care after killing the Polytrons on him with swift karate blows delivered by yours truly. The Eagle Zord then carried off the morphers in her beak so she could deliver them for us, and while we were waiting to see if Blake would be all right Cam's image appeared in the sacred pool to tell us about the aftereffects of the Polytron attack. He then added that men as a species were doomed before putting an end to all communications from Ninja Ops. Princess Shayla, having finished wiping Blake's face with a warm towel at this time, returned to her pool to reflect upon the day's events, and Tori and I left via the portal near the Temple entrance. Little did we know that Blake had opened his eyes to see us go and would quickly leave soon afterwards to tell his brother Hunter everything he knew about us.

Back at the dry lake, Amphibidor was gloating about his victory over the Power Rangers and their dirty bike punk friend when he was suddenly hit from behind by something large and heavy. Whirling around, he found himself facing a horned creature that looked like an old wooden ship whose bow was facing the sky. In one hand the new monster held an anchor shaped sword and chain, in the other he held a shield shaped like the helm of a boat.

"Hey!" This new monster growled at Amphibidor. "What did you do to _my_ lake? Why I ought to clobber and sink you for that! Give me back my water, or I'll grind you to dust!"

"Who are you?" Amphibidor wanted to know. "Another monster of Zurgane's?"

"I know not of this Zurgane you speak of." The other answered. "For your information, I am Ship Org, the toughest of all Orgs! Nothing can pierce my thick armor. Okay, I'll admit I was last defeated by the Giraffe Spear but now that the pesky Blue Ranger, the one I like to call a guppy, isn't here, I am totally invincible. And oh, once I conquer Earth for him Master Org will be so pleased I will become a Duke Org! Talk to these guys if you're not sure." Here he pointed to two Duke Orgs standing behind him. "Meet Toxica and Jindrax. They'll be my partners today."

"Yes," Toxica now said in her silky smooth and evil voice. "we are his partners. And you, my dear froggy friend, are welcome to join."

"But my lake!" Ship Org protested. He had suddenly remembered that his precious home was still dry. "You can't be serious!"

"But two heads are better than one, I always say!" Jindrax interrupted at this time. "So we must learn to work together. Therefore, join the Orgs, Amphibidor. Become one of us and we'll toss in an army of Putrids for free."

"Plus if you can capture the Lunar Wolf Ranger for us we'll give you more free things. Such as infinite…I don't know, those frog things you can spit out of your mouth."

"Infinite Polytrons?" Amphibidor was instantly interested in the deal. "Awesome! Count me in, Orgs!"

At the track, Blake, Tori, and I were sitting in the Wild Force van I owned reflecting on the Amphibidor attack. Of course the two lovebirds were in front, forcing me to sit in the back with only a Gameboy to keep me company (I wasn't really interested in the lovey-dovey comments the two occasionally traded while we were on the road).

"Thanks again for helping me out." I heard Blake say just after I had finished the first level of the Lion King 1 ½ game. "I don't remember everything that happened afterwards though."

"Yeah, you did take a really nasty fall." Tori agreed, and the two chuckled softly in response. Blake then said he felt like a chump for trying to be Tori's knight in shining armor only to end up being the gentleman in distress instead. At this I roared with laughter and patted the Navy Thunder Ranger hard on the shoulder as I fought to control my mirth.

"Laura's funny." Blake then commented, and I snickered. "Yeah, really funny. It's nice to have someone like Dustin on the team, I suppose."

"Hey." Hunter encroached upon the scene at this time. "You okay, bro?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, come on. We gotta get home to our parents now or they'll worry."

I nodded. "You boys be careful from now on, all right? Take care."

"You too." The Crimson Thunder Ranger gave me a small smile before opening the van door so Blake could clamber out. After the brothers had left, I lightly bopped Tori on the head.

"Yo. You in love, Tor?"

The Blue Ranger instantly gave me a look that clearly said 'No way', but at the same time her face began to turn red, indicating there _was_ love in the air. "Am not!" she cried out defensively, forcing me to laugh again. As much as Tori wanted to dismiss the idea, there was nothing that didn't indicate she was falling head over heels in love with Blake Bradley.

Later, as I was helping Shane and Dustin load the motocross equipment into the car (all the while babbling nonstop about which Wild Zords were my favorite), Cam contacted us via the fixed morphers Eagle Zord had dropped from the sky earlier to let us know that Amphibidor and Ship Org were at the dried up beach and ready to attack Blue Bay Harbor.

"We're on our way." Tori told him, then noted Blake and Hunter had gone home to their parents so Dustin wouldn't think about them again for a while.

"That would be great if they had parents." Shane answered, and told us that he had overheard the brothers saying they didn't live with any parents. This instantly screamed 'CONTRADICTION' to me, and I vowed to solve this Case of the Lying Brothers after the battle. "Great. With Laura on the job, I'm sure we'll solve this fairly quickly."

"Yeah." I agreed. "I've always admired Sherlock Holmes. Now, about this frog…"

"If Cam wants a frog we should definitely head down to the pet shop after this." Dustin commented, but stopped joking when Shane put on his 'let's do it' look that showed he meant business. "'Kay, dude, it's time to kick some butt."

"Ninja Storm, Ranger Form, ha!"

"Wild Access!"

Amphibidor and Ship Org were not impressed, so we proceeded to lower their morale by first doing our role call.

"Howling Wolf!" I cried out to initiate the sequence, and was joined by these following calls.

"Fiery Hawk! Power of Air!"

"Graceful Dolphin! Power of Water!"

"Fearless Lion! Power of Earth!" (Thank you, Tierra, for suggesting this, it's brilliant!)

"Guardians of the Earth, united we roar! Okay Shane, you and I will tackle Ship Org. Dustin, Tori, wham Amphibidor. And everybody pull out your Crystal Sabers. It's time to show these guys our new tactics, Wild Storm style."

Ka-boom! I had barely just finished giving out orders when something exploded and sent us flying in all directions. After picking myself off the ground and helping the others up, I was shocked to see the Thunder Rangers galloping toward us on their horses. Raised high above their heads were crimson and black striped sticks extended to full length, and though they didn't look like they could do much damage, I knew that the Thunder Ninja style could put the Wind techniques to shame any day.

"Like fighting a giant frog and an animated ship wasn't enough." Dustin complained as he held out his Crystal Saber in anticipation of a hit-and-run attack. At once the ninjas and I dropped into defensive stances. While the others pointed their weapons at the Thunders, I crouched low, readying myself for a all out wolf-like scratch-and-claw attack which would most likely leave gashes on their horses and possibly rip Hunter and Blake's uniforms. No matter that I was in love with Hunter. Because he and his brother currently intended to kill us, I would have to show no sympathy for them.

The Thunders were now quite close by now, so I started scratching the dirt beneath me. Calling on the power of the Wolf Zord, I was just about to spring when the horses split and each brother passed to either sides of us. Surprised, I leapt anyway and ended up on my stomach 25 feet away from the Winds. "Ouch. Shouldn't have done that. Clumsy me. I am the Wolf, quick and agile, for God's sake, not the Stone, solid and easily breakable. Oh well, I don't appear to be injured that badly. Now, what in the—"

"Hey, I thought we were on the same side." Amphibidor cried out at this time, and croaked as he was sent flying due to a well aimed beam from the Crimson Blaster. After picking himself up, he then tried to spit Polytrons at Hunter, but my boyfriend was quick and managed to use his Thunder Shield to deflect the deadly tadpoles. On the other side of the rock quarry, Blake was deflecting Ship Org's giant anchor, but with little success. Both brothers then regrouped to form the Thunder Blaster with both the Crimson Blaster and Navy Antler, causing Amphibidor to blow up. "Ah! I'm too young to croak!" he cried out, and died with a bang.

Shane gawked at this (I'm sure everyone also did, but he was the most shocked). "Okay, what just happened?" he wanted to know. "Why did these guys help us all of a sudden?"

"Yeah, what's the big idea?" Dustin agreed. "Dude, that was totally weird."

"Not to mention there doesn't appear to be a reason for the change of heart." Tori added, and I reached out a hand to touch Thunder's mane as his rider passed. Blake at once picked up speed so he was at his brother's side and slapped me on the arm with his Thunder Staff, so I growled back at him in disapproval. Seeing this, Hunter turned to glare at his brother, who meekly fell back behind him. He then turned to Shane while sheathing his own staff.

"We're even, Wind Rangers." He replied, and flicked his head. The two brothers then galloped away a short distance before ninja streaking out of sight.

"So _now_ what do we do?" Shane asked me when we returned our attentions to Ship Org, who still looked very much alive despite the fact that he was emitting smoke from every limb. "Do Orgs have to be killed in a specific way?"

"Why yes." I answered, and told the Rangers that they could call upon the arsenal of the Wild Force Rangers because most of the animal crystal s were theirs now. "And because this is your first time, I'll be more than happy to walk you through the process. First, trust your instincts and call out the name of your weapon. Two of you will end up calling out two animals, but that's to be expected because there are five Core Power Animals and only three of you guys."

And concentrate they all did. From out of nowhere the Shark fins and Tiger Baton landed in Tori's hands, Shane ended up holding the Red Lion Fang, and Dustin took charge of the Eagle Sword and Bison Axe (the latter he especially liked even though it wasn't his color). "Now form the Jungle Sword, people. And when you're ready, Shane, use the Savage Slash to KO this pesky hunk of wood that won't burn up."

"Got it. Get behind me guys, with your hands on my shoulders. Now let's do this. Savage Slash!" he now brought the Sword down, generating a yellow golden beam that instantly evaporated Ship Org.

"Yes!" I laughed when I saw that another Org had been beaten and slapped hands with everyone. The Winds then retracted their visors so I could see happy grins all around. "Good job Rangers. Now we can go home for some fantastic miso soup cooked by yours truly."

"Ah, miso soup, how delicious that sounds." Tori exclaimed, and while we were celebrating this victory I heard awfully familiar laughter coming from the area where Ship Org had stood moments before.

"Okay, it appears that the miso soup is going to have to wait. Right now we've got bigger problems. Toxica, Jindrax, what are you two doing here?"

"What, you still remember us?" Toxica asked, and I rolled my eyes in response.

"Duh! Wild Force was active only one year ago. So. How do you like the new team I'm mentoring, eh? Are ninjas the coolest, or what?"

"I would say we Orgs are the coolest." Jindrax answered, and looked at Dustin, who was still holding the Eagle Sword. "Hey, you want to fight me, boy? See why I'm called the Master of Blades!"

"Uh, hello, don't you guys always show up to inflate a monster?" I now asked, and Toxica realized the green goo that was formerly Ship Org hadn't been fed Org seeds yet.

"Oh, yes. We forgot about that part. Evil spirits of toil and strife, give this fallen Org new life! Yah!"

Now it was time to call the Zords. After tossing Dustin the Eagle Crystal and making sure the other Rangers had their animal crystals, I then told them to place the orbs into their Crystal Sabers and call out to the Power Animals.

"Wild Zords, descend!" They all cried out at once, and as they raised their daggers to the sky, I helped by tossing the Bison and Tiger crystals into the air as well. As the Lion and his companions came down to help us, the Ninja Rangers then formed a circle and pointed their daggers at the center of the circle. "Wild Zords, combine!"

Inside the Wild Force Megazord, the Wind Rangers prepared to fight Ship Org, only to realize there was no cockpit whatsoever in the head of the Red Lion. Shane at once whirled to face me, and was about to ask why the area was devoid of buttons and switches when I realized that ever since the Soul Bird had hatched a year ago the Lion had deleted all cockpit consoles from his memory.

"Yeah, that's it, we need the Soul Bird. But how to get it? Somebody see if you can contact Princess Shayla, she could—Oh, never mind, you guys had better hug the walls now because the little guy is coming toward us at top speed! Especially you Shane. Watch—"

SCREECH! The Soul Bird suddenly flew in through the back wall of the cockpit area and swept Shane off his feet. Imagine, if you will, Shane flying up a little and landing on the Soul Bird's snout. Luckily, the Red Ranger quickly regained his footing and only injured his pride. Still, I could not help but snicker at the sight of Shane rubbing his back and moaning slightly. A few moments later the Soul Bird squawked his apology.

"Apology accepted." Was Shane's reply, and he placed his Crystal Saber in the slot at the back of the Soul Bird. Beside him, Tori and Dustin did the same. "Now what do we do? Perhaps you had better take over, Laura, just for today. I'm not used to standing and controlling live animals with minds of their own."

"All right." With a nod, I came over to look over his shoulder. "Begin by moving the Megazord forward. We aren't going to put any dents in Ship Org if we're too far away from him. Now Tori, initiate the Shark Surge. Dustin, Tiger Fury and finish it with Bison Kick."

The Rangers did as told, but Ship Org managed to deflect all attacks with his trusty shield. "Ha, ha, ha! Nice try Rangers, but not good enough." Here he began to bash us with the anchor, and our Megazord soon hit the ground. "You're sunk!"

"No, we're not. Let's see how good he is against the Elephant. Dustin, could I borrow your Saber?"

"Yeah, sure, why?"

"Were you listening? I just said I needed the Elephant, dude. Elephant Zord, arise!" At once there was a loud trumpet, and the Elephant came forward to run Ship Org over before standing next to our Megazord. "Good boy. Now combine with us, old friend. Wild Force Megazord, Sword and Shield Mode! From here, figure out what to do, Shane. Hint: Use the weapon provided."

"Uh, we slash him with the trunk?" he asked, and I nodded.

"That's one point for you, mister. That's right, we need to hit him with the big long trunk. Pachyderm Crusher!"Again, Ship Org deflected the attack, and the Rangers groaned again as we went down a second time. From his face down position, Red Lion growled his displeasure. "Fine, fine, we'll kill him with the _right_ Zords this time. I know the Elephant wouldn't work in the first place, but then again, this is called 'practice'. That's right Red Lion, we're _practicing_." Another growl, this time even more ominous sounding. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry your nose hurts. But then again, you can blame Ship Org for bashing you face first onto a mountain of stones. Now Rangers, we have only one more option left, no? With the Elephant currently dismembered on the ground, we have no choice but to summon the Spear of Pardolis."

"The what, dude?" Dustin was clueless as always.

"The Spear of Pardolis." Here I snapped into lecture mode. "Pardolis was an Animarium Warrior, who controlled one of the mightiest Wild Zords of them all. Now Tori, since you currently hold his favorite animal close to your heart, you'll have to call him in my place. Just call out to his Wild Zord with your heart, and the Crystal should respond."

Tori looked quizzically back at me after this short three sentence lecture before doing as I suggested. "Okay, here goes. Spear of Pardolis, we ask you to _please_ help us in our time of need."

"Hey, check that out." I pointed, and Tori noticed the orange Giraffe Crystal was glowing.

"Oh, of course. A Giraffe's neck is like a spear." She popped in the Giraffe Crystal into the Saber. "Giraffe Zord, awaken from your slumber!" Musical chimes sounded, and lo and behold, the Giraffe suddenly rose out of the restored lake previously drained by Amphibidor. "Cool!"

"Yeah, cool." Cam's voice could be heard saying. "Guys, I'm sending you the Storm Megazord. I know you're currently in the Wild Force Megazord, but I thought it would be cool to see if the Wild Zords can combine with man-made machines."

"Oh, that would be cool, dude." Shane immediately answered, and while the Storm Megazord was forming by itself the Giraffe began bashing the Org with its long neck. Noticing this, Dustin further added 'awesome' before watching as Tori ordered her Dolphin to detach.

"Dolphin, disengage. Sorry, but though you'll always be number one with me, it's time to see what this Giraffe is capable of." She said loudly. "Attach Giraffe!" There came now the sound of loud snaps as the Giraffe folded its legs and donned a silver mask to protect itself from impacts. Amazingly, it fit the Storm Megazord like a glove, which surprised even Cam.

"Wow." Was all Shane could say, and I had to groan when Dustin said 'dude' again, but regained my composure a moment later.

"Nice. Storm Megazord, Spear Mode!" On command, the Storm Megazord did a pose with its new arm, and I at once wished for a camera because the formation was just too good to be not captured on a photograph. "Awesome. Now, let's do—"

"Do you think that toothpick can break through my shield?" Ship Org was not impressed with this new formation, and I don't know why he wouldn't be because he had been beaten by this Wild Zord before. Maybe Orgs have short-term memories. "Oh come on, it can't possibly be as strong as it once was now that the Blue Ranger isn't here anymore." Okay, he does have a long term memory but he's ignoring the past. "So bring it on."

"All right, you asked for it. Storm Megazord, get ready. On the count of three. One, two, Giraffe Spear, fire!"

Needless to say, Ship Org blew up at once.

"And don't forget the tofu!" Shane cried out happily as we were coming out of the portal that led into the courtyard in front of the Temple of the Wild Zords. As we walked, the Rangers were behind me yelling out all the stuff they wanted me to put in the soup.

"Mushrooms, can't have soup without mushrooms." Dustin added, only to be interrupted by Tori saying "And fish balls! Yeah, definitely fish balls. With pork in them. I love those."

"Cool, we'll have miso soup with mushrooms and pork-filled fish balls then." I agreed, and went into the Temple itself to recover Alyssa's cooking utensils from the cabinet in a spare room. The others gathered around the picnic table nearby, still trying to think up new ingredients for my soup, and all was happy…until the portal opened once again to admit three people into the courtyard.

"Let go of me!" Cam growled loudly at his captors as he was being escorted toward us by two young men in Thunder Ninja uniforms. I couldn't see his face very well because the two masked ninjas had blindfolded him, and I also noted he was unable to move much because they had hobbled his legs and tied his hands behind his back. "I'll get you two for this!"

"What's going on here?" I asked, and instantly raised the frying pan above my head. Hey, believe it or not, frying pans can make good weapons. Beside me, the others also readied themselves for hand to hand combat. "Show yourselves."

"Very well." Said the ninja wearing the crimson uniform, and I gasped upon recognizing Blake and Hunter. Before I could say anything though, Tori asked, in a skeptical voice "Blake?" and Shane followed up with a question of 'What are you doing here?'

"And how did you know where the Animarium was?" I too wanted to know.

"Ask yourself and Tori." Hunter replied, and Blake bowed his head in response.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "but we had to find out where your bases of operation were."

"Right, now, unhand Cam or I'll hit one of you with the frying pan." I angrily snapped. "Hurt him and I'll have Zen-Aku hunt you both down."

"Leave him, we got what we wanted." Hunter answered, and Cam was thrown heavily onto the picnic table. At the same time, the others shot me brief questioning glances, so I made a mental note to introduce them to the Wolf Duke Org later. Hearing the noise, Princess Shayla rose out of the pool as a ball of blue light and quickly rushed to help the other Rangers untie him while I chased the Thunders out of the Animarium and back into Ninja Ops, where they vanished in clouds of smoke.

"Aw, man! Dustin may be right, they are somewhat master illusionists." With that I started to snoop around the area in search of Sensei and came out with empty hands. "Uh guys? Sensei's gone."

"I know." Was Cam's reply after I used my morpher to call him. "My father. They took my father."


	7. Passing the Torch

_Passing the Torch_

_A Week after "There's No I in Team"_

"So, how did you meet Merrick and get the Lunar Wolf powers, anyway? You never really made that clear." Tori wanted to know as I was clearing a table in the _Lotus Garden_ restaurant for the Winds. Shane had complained I was spending a little too much time with my mysterious boyfriend, so I had decided to forget Hunter for a day and take my new buddies out for a meal instead. But rather than letting me relax, they wanted to take this opportunity to know more about my yet-to-be-revealed Ranger powers, and thus, Tori had come up with that question.

"That…" I answered with a long dramatic pause, "is a _long_ story. Do you guys really want to hear it? I mean, it wouldn't really matter if you didn't."

"You gave us the animal crystals, so we have got to understand the meaning behind them somehow." Shane explained, and proceeded to smooth a wrinkled Storm Chargers receipt, which he had fished out of his back pocket. I then handed him a pen, and the Air ninja used it to jot down a few items from the menu. Spring rolls was number one on the list, followed by steamed carp and hot and sour soup. Dustin then suggested 'beef with broccoli', followed by Tori calling out 'Soup dumplings'. Hearing these orders, I growled 'Stupid American Chinese cuisine' under my breath before asking the waiter if there was real authentic Asian food available. After taking the receipt away, along with the pen much to my dismay, the waiter gave a quick nod before yelling 'bring out some _real_ food for Table 10' and leaving. Alone at last, I sighed, and was about to tell the story when four women dressed in _qipaos_ ran in with shark fin soup, roasted duck, and live lobster on a platter of ice cubes.

"Here you go!" said one of the women with a big smile upon her face, before putting the dishes down on the table for us. As she left, the angry shivering lobster snapped its claws in Tori's face (she almost fainted when it did). Aghast, I cursed the women's choice of bad cuisine before delivering it to a bride and groom three tables away. They smiled, said thanks, and all was well because the lobster decided to play dead after being transferred…until the groom shrieked when the crustacean got a killer grip on his pinky. From our seating area, we all tried not to laugh, but found it hard to suppress our mirth.

"All right, let's get back to the topic of discussion." I said, then watched as the couple ran out the door screaming their heads off before closing my eyes. "Let me think first, though. Ah, here we go. But before we start, Tori, please put the shark fin soup away. I have no intention of eating something that may have been an endangered species."

"Yeah, I have heard that hammerhead sharks are sometimes finned." She answered, causing me to immediately take out the dark purple animal crystal around a small figurine of my beloved shark and scream 'No, Hammy!' in a loud voice. As a result the manager popped his head in to find out what's the matter, allowing me to pretend to wail like a baby. Knowing I was an animal lover, the manager quickly removed the offensive dish, then yelled 'Can we have fried dough sticks here?' and 'That's it, the next person to order a shipment of shark fins gets fired!'. Like the others, he left as quickly as he had come, allowing me to calm down and continue the story.

"The day I met Merrick was, well, hectic. Before joining Wild Force, I needed a job, and so was hired by a doctor who worked at Turtle Cove University Hospital. As you may have guessed, Merrick was in the hospital when I met him. Anyway, I still don't know what drove me to enter his room that day. Maybe it was the wind blowing in my face every ten minutes. Or maybe it was intuition. Or maybe I had felt the need to check up on some patients, since it was part of my job description. Whatever the reason, I remember heading down to room 203 before a very strong wind knocked me off my feet and swept me down the hall into Merrick's room."

"And?" Dustin wanted to know.

"And the first thing Merrick said to me was 'There must be some mistake'. Oh, I think it was a mistake too, because I didn't look fit to be an Animarian warrior at that point. My hair was a mess because the stupid wind had ruffled it, I had bloodshot eyes due to the lack of sleep, and I smelled like horses because before coming to work I always go volunteer at this therapeutic riding academy in the mornings. Now, I remember heading back for the door, only to find it was locked. Looking back at Merrick, I was about to lecture him for preventing employees from leaving when the three animal crystals on his bedside table rose into the air and started spinning around my wrist. As a result, the Lunar Caller materialized, and thus, I gained the powers of the Lunar Wolf almost instantly. But!" Here I paused for emphasis. "That wasn't all that happened. Then came the 'Legend of Animaria' lecture, basic Ranger rules yadda-yadda-yadda, and Merrick's sob story. It turns out Quadra Org, an Org made up of the Elephant, Polar Bear, Black Bear and Giraffe Wild Zords, injured him so much he only had energy and strength for one morph. After that, he collapsed, forcing the Wild Force team to relocate him to TCU Hospital. He then said that it was no mistake that the Wolf chose me because I was the most dedicated, animal loving and pro-wolf person other than him in town."

"Pro-wolf?"

"Yeah dude, what's wrong with that? I like wolves." Here I showed Dustin my T-shirt, which showed a gray wolf howling at a full moon. "They're my favorite animal."

Shane interrupted next, with, I noticed in disgust, a mouth full of rice and roast duck. A bit of soy sauce splashed onto the table at that point, and I had to tell Tori to stop shaking her roast duck so she wouldn't spray us all. "Oh. So, from then on, you joined the team?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Shane, it's unsightly, and yes, from then on I was an official member of Wild Force. I continued to work at the riding academy afterwards, but couldn't continue my hospital job because I started skipping my shifts to help save the world every once in a while. And, as you are well aware, I joined the Wind Ninja Academy that same year."

"Speaking of the Academy, you wouldn't have heard of it, dude. How--?" Dustin asked.

"That's also interesting. Let's just say I crashed into Sensei Watanabe while shopping for Alyssa, who needed food to cook with."

"And Alyssa would be the one who owned the Tiger Zord, I presume?" Tori inquired.

"Why, of course. Cole was the Blazing Lion, Taylor Soaring Eagle, Max Surging Shark, Danny Iron Bison, and Alyssa Noble Tiger. Now, Sensei Watanabe knew I was a Power Ranger because my jacket clearly screamed 'Howling Wolf', and he and Cam had been watching us fight from Ninja Ops. After exchanging introductions, Sensei then warned me of this Org named Onikage, and using this premonition, as well as additional training I received at the Academy, I was well prepared when that ninja Duke Org sneaked upon the Animarium to kidnap Princess Shayla. But I really admire this guy named Tommy Oliver. He's like, the best Power Ranger ever."

"Why, was he involved in Wild Force affairs?"

"Oh, yes…in a way. It was funny actually. I was napping right by the portal entrance when this bewildered UPS guy came through the door and stepped on my hand by accident, thus waking me up with a howl. He then said that somebody had a present for the Power Rangers, which I didn't believe at first. After this, I nearly fainted when a package from 'Tommy Oliver' landed in my arms. God, it was heavy. Upon opening it, imagine my surprise when I saw the components of the Jungle Blaster in there! Man, I still wonder how that guy knew about us and made those things!"

"Wait, Tommy Oliver?" Shane shook his head. "Never heard of him."

"Dude!" Here I stood up and bopped him on the head with the clean end of my chopsticks. "Don't tell me you haven't heard of him! He is the greatest Ranger of all time, you idiot. How can you be a Ranger and not know about Tommy Oliver?"

"I uh…" Shane looked dumbfounded, so I handed him a disc titled 'Unfinished Legacy of Power'. "Here, take this and watch it as soon as you get home to learn more about your heritage. It may not be much now, as there will be Ranger teams in the future which will be included in this documentary, but for now, it's as complete as it can possibly be at this time. Take Dustin and Tori with you, so you can all watch it together. That way, you'll know all about the Power Rangers of the past and figure out how to read the minds of evil aliens, or, in this case, evil space ninjas with world domination written all over their foreheads. Study it, Shane, and study it well. And call Cole Evans if you need help because he will be more than happy to help out a fellow Red Ranger. Heck, he can even give you the numbers of every Red Ranger that has ever existed, because of that Forever Red mission to the moon."

"The moon?" Dustin now echoed. Chopsticks then clanged as I put them down to tell the Rangers all about that mission, complete with photos and sound effects ("And then Cole rode the Wild Force Rider straight into the gaping maw of Serpentera. POW! BOOM! Serpentera blew up like a million 4th of Julys!")

We were still talking when the waiter came by to give out fortune cookies and toss us out the door for making too much noise in the back of the restaurant. You can blame it all on me, for as I spoke, I grew more and more excited until I was practically shouting 'The Red Rangers were morphenominal' at the top of my lungs.


	8. Thunder Strangers, Part Three

Thunder Strangers, Part Three

With Kanoi Watanabe removed from power, his brother, Kiya, was happier than he had ever been in his entire life. For his nieces, this meant they were free to do whatever they felt like doing. Dancing happened to be one of their favorite hobbies, and with Kapri's pink radio blaring in the background, the Kelzaks could choose to dance with the girls or simply listen, but most did dance. One of the foot soldiers then produced a flute to blow on, adding to the festive mood. As the girls started whirling all over Lothor's throne room, the evil ninja emperor looked around for his general, Zurgane, only to find him sulking at the doorway.

"This is a 'Rangers Got Their Butts Kicked' party." Lothor boomed in a haughty voice as he approached his general. Someone without the energy nor interest to partake in the festivities was no fun, and Lothor firmly believed that even evildoers needed to be jolly once in a while. "Therefore, you should be celebrating, Zurgane. Lighten up! Those multicolored superheroes won't be bothering us for a long time yet, since their Megazords are down and all."

Zurgane bowed out of respect for his master, then raised a finger in protest. "But sir, until the Thunder Rangers return, the world is under our control, and the Wind Rangers completely ripped of their powers, I will not celebrate."

"Oh?" Lothor now pressed a button on his remote to make the TV screen show them the Thunder Rangers, who were currently making their way cautiously down a leaf-covered forest trail on the Mountain of Lost Ninjas. Sensei, in his protective transparent sphere, sat in front of Hunter, who had one hand on the ball and the other on his horse's neck. The animals were frightened, for they could sense strange things on the wind and surmised danger lay just ahead. Having their manes stroked by the equally unnerved brothers wasn't helping, but the horses were trained not to bolt and therefore continued on with what bravery they could muster. "Step one: Capture your enemy's leader. Done! Two: Wipe out the rest of their army, a task I shall delegate to you, Zurgane. Step three: Eliminate anything else in our way, including the Rangers' bases and mentors. Speaking of bases, I'll have to figure out how to land on the Animarium. With a little bit of luck, I'm sure we'll succeed. In the end, it'll all be like a big evil group hug."

"Animarium?" Snarled a new voice, and both evil leaders turned around to face a disheveled Master Org, who looked as though he had been living at the local junkyard. His face was burnt and disfigured, but he was still someone to be reckoned with, and Lothor promptly backed up a little to let the former enemy of the Wild Force team pass him. "You're never going to get there without my help, that's for sure. So I propose a truce, Lothor. If you will allow my army to work alongside yours, we may achieve better results. Besides, I take it the Lunar Wolf Ranger has been helping this year's Guardians of the Earth?"

"Yes, that Laura is really someone I can't get out of my hair. In fact, I could go as far as to say she's a pain in the royal ponytail."

Master Org laughed at this, and his smirk told the ninja he had expected the other man to say that. "Well then, she must be dealt with first and foremost. Those ninjas you're up against must be relying on her for support, and once she's out of the picture, the world will be _ours_!"

"Right you are. But first, let's see how my dear Thunder Rangers take care of them…in their own bangglorious way." As if on cue, the music which had stopped the moment Master Org came aboard resumed playing, and everyone except for the two leaders started dancing once more.

"So why do Blake and Hunter want Sensei again?" Dustin wanted to know the moment Cam and I raced each other to the computer in order to track the Thunders' whereabouts. "I mean, if they want a pet guinea pig, I don't see why can't they go to Fred's Pet Shoppe to get one instead. The store's reputation is awesome, not to mention I even have a discount coupon that says '20 off any guinea pig chow' they could use."

"Dude, have you been listening to anything Cam just said?" I asked him, and pressed a button on the keyboard to magnify Sensei's trail on the monitor and get a sense of the forest area the kidnappers were currently traversing. "They need him so they can exact revenge, revenge that will make up for the false fact that Sensei Kanoi killed their parents. Tori, be a dear now and look through the scrolls in the back. I want to know their final destination. Not that I don't have a clue, but I want you to confirm all my suspicions."

Just then Shane yelped in surprise, and I whirled around to see Erica screech to a stop on the low table in the center of Ninja Ops. A normal eye would not have been able to see how she had entered the base, but we were all highly trained ninjas and sensed that she had just ninja streaked in.

"Dude!" Dustin, was, as usual, the first to comment on this strange turn of events. "Did you just ninja streak in here, Erica?"

"Yeah, so?" she answered, and jangled the keys to the Mobile Command Center in the air. "I heard there was trouble, so I came here as fast as I could. Thanks for teaching me neat stuff behind the scenes, Laura. I can now see this cool trick comes in handy during times like this."

Cam's face instantly turned the color of a ripe cherry, and before anyone could say 'oh boy' he had spun his chair around. "You did _what_ to a outsider?" he asked me, causing both of us to shudder and back up nervously toward the wall. "Great! Once Dad finds out, you two are both in deep trouble, missies."

"But, uh…when evil strikes, doesn't it seem logical to add more members to your evil butt kicking party so that chances of being victorious go up significantly?" I asked with a nervous laugh.

Cam groaned in reply, but reluctantly agreed to let us both off the hook. "Fine. Since Erica is here and all, could you please tell her to ready the Mobile Command Center in my stead? I never get any help around here."

"Helping people is what I do best." Erica replied, and punched the wall so it could open up, revealing a passage to the garage where the truck was. The horses in their stalls neighed in response, almost as if to say 'hey, you guys can't be leaving us alone! Somebody leave us food so we won't starve while everybody else runs off to save the world!' As she scurried off to do Cam's bidding, the Sensei's son chose that moment to add that she had better work fast, because Sensei could only be tracked within a 25 mile radius, and until we got him back he would be totally helpless thanks to his energy sphere. He said this all while rubbing his wrists; both were still marred with rope marks.

"Furthermore," he added as he continued to nurse his wounds, "the Thunders are traveling with abnormal speed. They are on horses, which means we'll have to chase them on Tsunami Cycles if we ever hope to catch up. And since they're in the forest—"

"They are heading for the Mountain of Lost Ninjas." Tori suddenly piped up from the back room, prompting Dustin's eyes lit up.

"Dude, that's where those ninja ghosts are, right?" he asked, and I nodded while readjusting the strap on the Lunar Caller.

"So you _do_ study your ninja history." Cam added sarcastically. He then typed a command to show us a large cave carved into the mountain. "Here is the final destination. This, Rangers, is the Cavern of Spirits."

"Which in turn houses the Gem of Souls, the only thing that's powerful enough to break Sensei's energy sphere." Tori finished.

"Exactly." At this time the computer beeped loudly and Erica's face filled up the screen.

"Yoo-hoo!" she said. In response we all jerked back a second when her mouth fogged up the screen due to its proximity to the monitor. "The Mobile Command Center is ready to hit the road, Captain Cam."

"Well, I hope the Tsunami Cycles are up and running too, because we'll need them. And get your lips away from the monitor. Too much moisture could damage the wires, not to mention we can barely see you through the fog."

"Yes sir, Captain Cam. Three Tsunami Cycles—"

"And one Wolf Savage Cycle!" Here I butted in to make sure Erica didn't forget about me.

"And one Wolf Savage Cycle coming right up! Captain Cam, you're clear for takeoff."

"Great. Wind Rangers, move out!"

I laughed, then gave Cam a mock salute. "Yes, sir!"

Back in the forest, Blake and Hunter were both riding at a brisk trot toward the Cavern of Spirits. To prevent him from falling off, Hunter had placed Sensei, sphere and all, in the saddlebag strapped to his horse's flank, which was embroidered with his Ranger emblem. Because the horses were almost identical, the saddlebags and color coded reins had helped their Sensei Omino tell them apart in the past. They still used the old tack, because they didn't have money to get them repaired or buy new equipment.

"Uh bro, do you mind if we stopped for a moment?" Blake asked. When Hunter looked back to ask him why it was necessary to halt, the Crimson Ranger saw a stream running alongside the path they were currently on, and surmised it was about time for a brief respite. "Thanks. By the way, this forest is freaking me out. I have the feeling that someone, or something, is watching us."

"Oh, don't be such a baby." His brother snapped, and dropped the reins so Thunder could drink his fill before they all continued on. "There's nothing to be afraid of…except maybe that." Here he pointed to the sky, which was rapidly darkening. "Still, rain or shine, we'll press on. Sensei Watanabe needs to be eliminated at all costs."

"Is that so, Hunter Bradley?" A wise voice called out from above, and the Thunders looked up to see Animus shining in all his glory down upon them. Not the entire deity was visible though, but the brothers could make out the head of the Brown Buffalo, the body of the Black Lion, and the wings and tail of the Blue Condor. Only the hindquarters of the Leopard and Saw-shark could be seen, but not identified because his arms never came into view. Now, if the god could smile, he would have at this moment, but because he had no visible mouth, it was hard to tell if he was amused or not. "I see you both have forgotten who you are. Know this, that the one you claim to have hurt your parents is in reality no threat at all."

"Really." Hunter answered. "I refuse to believe that. Who are you, anyway? You have no right to tell me what to do, because you're not my boss."

"I am Animus, Lord of the Wild Zords, and I see that I cannot change your mind, young Bradley. Should you choose to continue—"

"A choice I will continue to uphold—"

"Then I have no place here. However, you shall see me again." At this point the god began to fade from sight, and the glowing light surrounding him brightened significantly before the sky was restored to its original bright blue. But Animus' words still hung in the air, and as the wind picked up, the brothers could hear it howling 'remember who you are', a phrase that would haunt them for the rest of the week.

"Well now, I believe it's time to move on." Blake now announced, and Hunter nodded. From the saddlebag, Sensei suddenly spoke up. His voice sounded muffled, but the brothers were able to get his message.

"Animus is wise, as he always is. And you should be afraid Thunder Rangers. There are spirits here, spirits of the darkest warriors the world has ever known."

"Yeah, I could have told you that myself."

"Be quiet! We know what we're doing."

"Have you not learned that taking revenge on one who has caused you no harm makes you as guilty as the one who hurt you to begin with?"

"Ha! As if I would be dumb enough to believe that! According to Lothor, you destroyed our parents. Parents who adopted us and gave us a life. You deserve everything that's coming to you. Now shut up so that we may continue." Here he squeezed Thunder's sides with his legs and shook the reins angrily. "Hi-yah!"

"Hi-yah!" his brother echoed. Both horses thundered off in a flurry of hooves.

Meanwhile, in the Mobile Command Center, the Rangers and I were making last minute preparations on our bikes. Cam sat by the monitor screen on one side of the trailer behind us, because he not only needed to keep tabs on Sensei's whereabouts but also make sure Erica was driving properly.

"Turn right!" I heard him suddenly yell before returning to his normal 'no-nonsense' voice. "Change lanes. We want to be in the nearly empty right lane so there's plenty of room for the Rangers to maneuver after they abandon ship. Now carefully turn the steering wheel while checking all mirrors for cars before making the switch, or we'll have an accident."

"I know!" Erica angrily snapped back. "It's not like I haven't driven this thing before."

"True, but last time you never drove on the highway while coming to our rescue and upon stopping you almost banged the front bumper against a tree." Hearing this, we all snickered or snorted in amusement. "Now get ready to lower the ramp. We're almost at the drop-off point."

"All right, all systems go." Shane said with a laugh, then placed a reassuring hand on Tori's shoulder upon seeing her sad expression. Beside him, Dustin heavily landed on his Tsunami Cycle and whooped in joy because he had been itching to leave the truck ever since we pulled out of Ninja Ops. "Relax, okay? Whatever happened back there wasn't your fault, only Blake's...Laura, you are fine with this too, right? You can blame this all on Hunter later. Remember guys, whatever happened to your boyfriends could have happened to any of us. You both did what you thought was right."

I nodded as I put on my helmet, then moved the Wolf Savage Cycle forward a little so it was directly in front of the Red Wind Ranger's bike. "Yeah. Yo, everything's ready over here, Cam. Erica, hit it!"

"Got it!" Almost immediately, I heard a hiss as the ramp finally lowered, and soon we could see the road in front of us. Engines then revved, but before we could leave, Cam stood up from his seat.

"This is as far as Erica and I can go." He told us. "Please find my father."

"Let's do it then." With that, I rolled down the ramp on the Cycle and began to accelerate. Once the others had caught up, I then waved to Erica before ninja streaking out of sight with the others.

The Tsunami Cycles were fast, but not as fast as my Wolf Cycle, which left them all behind moments after we arrived in the forest. I can see why my Zord is so fast on this type of terrain: the wolf naturally feels at home in the forest. He also liked to romp around in the snow too, when winter arrived, and I remember Cole getting buried in a 4 foot tall mound of snow after Wolf Zord heard the words 'snowball fight' coming from the frozen lake area (Sharkie wasn't around that day, he was too deep in hibernation mode to notice the other Wild Zords were having fun teasing the Red Ranger. That spring, we had to literally poke him awake with the Giraffe Spear because he didn't rouse even when the water temperature rose.). Anyway, as fun as a snowball fight may seem, Cole got sick a day later. I guess Jungle Boy wasn't used to seeing snow, as it was his first year in the city…

"Laura, watch out!" I heard Shane abruptly shout, and I screeched to a stop just before the bike could ram into Blake and Hunter, who were currently battling—ew, I should say—a bunch of dead guys in gray tattered clothing and howling ghost Halloween masks.

"Whoa!" Was all I could say about the scene unfolding before our eyes. "This is crazy."

"So, should we help them?" Tori asked, and Dustin answered her question by firing his Cycle's laser beams at the mass of lost ninjas, separating them from the Thunders but also pulling us into the melee. "Darn you, Dustin. Did you _have_ to do that?"

"Well, as bad as these guys are, Laura would probably kill me if I let them fight their way out of this mess themselves, right?" Dustin replied while kicking aside one of the ninjas who had decided to jump on him. To my left, I saw Blake and Hunter morph into their Ranger forms.

"Thunder Storm, Ranger Form, ha!" They cried out at the same time, and for the first time I saw how they were able to become Power Rangers. "Power of Thunder!"

"Hey, dudes, get off of me!" I now shouted at two ninjas who had gotten their hands on my ankles. Trying to shake them off proved futile, so I ended up scratching them on the faces instead with the sharp claws on my gloves. After getting free, I then ran forward to grab Blake's arm away from a ninja trying to beat it with a tree branch. Seeing his brother in distress, Hunter came over to assist him, but as he did so the lost ninjas surged forward to block off every escape route.

"Aw dude, this is so not my day of fun." Dustin could be heard saying as he and Shane stood back to back, Hawk Blaster and Lion Hammer in hands. "These guys don't appear ready to bite the dust any time soon."

"Okay, I hereby declare a temporary truce." Shane announced. "Everyone attack anybody not wearing a primary color. Beat as much stuffing out of them as you can, and remember, they haven't a lot to lose as they're already dead."

"Oh, I've got a bad feeling about this. A premonition, if you would like to call it that." I muttered. "Oy (hey, anybody else see I've opened three sentences with words starting with 'O'? I, the author, am astounded by my own writing sometimes), Hunter, give me a hand here. This guy's really ticking me off!" One of the lost ninjas had leapt upon my back and was hitting me hard with his rusty sword covered with the dust of ages. (That's four! Whew.) Bound by the truce, Hunter had to help me pry the ninja off, and once free, I retaliated by karate chopping the offending monstrosity down to the ground.

"Heads up!" Tori suddenly cried out as a ninja went flying into the air. It flew straight into Blake, but he was able to knock it back with his Thunder Staff before it could hit him. Seeing a ninja nearby, I used the Lunar Cue to blast him backwards, then pretended to play hockey with my weapon. Poor guy slammed into a tree I had labeled 'The Net'. "Good grief, Laura, don't play with your enemies! Did you have to do that?"

"But it's fun, and there's no rule that says you can't have fun knocking people down like bowling pins." I answered, then used Shane's shoulders as a springboard to gain enough momentum to scratch the faces of two ninjas about to pounce on an unsuspecting Dustin a few feet away. Somebody's Ninja Sword suddenly flew into the air, and Blake caught it. With the Wind's weapon, and his own Thunder Staff, he sliced one of the ninjas into five pieces after frying it with a blast of blue lightning. The Sword was finally returned to Tori, and she could have powered down to kiss him, but all of a sudden the ninjas all turned into dust, and Hunter had to announce the truce was over.

"While it lasted though, you all showed great teamwork." Sensei said, and Hunter snatched him up quickly before he could praise us further. The Winds then tried to congratulate the Thunder bros, only to receive glares and harsh words.

"So, I guess you're not on our side after all." Shane had to say.

"Yeah, okay, but I still don't know why you guys want our teacher." Dustin added.

Hunter growled softly upon hearing this, then turned to face the Yellow Wind Ranger slowly. "It's simple—revenge." He and his brother then turned on their heels before ninja streaking away, presumably to look for their missing horses, but Shane wasn't about to let them leave so quickly.

"Laura, Tori, Dustin, let's go." He urged. "They're getting away!" With that, the Winds gave chase, leaving me to bring up the rear.

Not willing to enter the melee after chasing the Thunders to the rocky beach near the Cavern of Sprits, I alighted upon a cliff overlooking the area in order to watch the action unfolding below. As I looked on, both teams of Rangers exchanged blows, then separated, gasping for breath. The Winds' Swords then transformed into Quasar Sabers and they used the Lights of Orion to launch a devastating fireball attack on the Thunders, thus ending the battle in a matter of seconds…oh, by the wings of Animaria what am I doing? Gah! This is Ninja Storm we're talking about here, not Lost Galaxy! (Author bangs head on desk) Anyway, ahem. As I was saying, the Winds and Thunders were about to initiate round 2 when all of a sudden their brawl was interrupted by a really ugly looking Zord coming toward them from out of nowhere.

"Hello, Rangers." A familiar voice boomed. "Zurgane here. Prepare to meet your doom!"

"Hello, Zurgane." I yelled back. "Lunar Wolf here. Let's see how you fare against my Wild Zords!" With that, I threw my animal crystals into the air to summon the Alligator, Wolf, and Hammerhead Shark Wild Zords. "Silverclaw, sic him! Sobek (I know he's an alligator, not a croc, but who cares?), chomp down with all you've got! Oh, and Hammy, use your head!"

"Arrgh!" To the tune of 'We're the Champions' currently playing in my head, the Wild Zords charged toward Zurganezord #1 with ardor. They were smaller than the enemy in front of them when not combined into the Predazord, but their hearts were large. Anyway, Zurgane, unprepared for this sudden assault, went down like a sack of potatoes. Speaking of which, I noted Dustin sometimes sat like one on Desert Storm, and reminded myself to teach him proper riding techniques later.

"Yeah, that's awesome, guys! Now, it's time for a team-up match! Hey Tori, why don't you join me in the Storm Megazord so we can show Zurgane some girl power? Shane, Dustin, keep the Thunders busy while we're at it. Thank you!"

If Tori was surprised to be asked to pilot a Megazord all by her self, she didn't show it. Instead, she eagerly pressed a button on her morpher, and Cam promptly answered that the Ninja zords were on the way. Meanwhile, Shane had knocked Hunter to the ground so he could kick Sensei's sphere into the air like a soccer ball, thus preventing him from being hurt in the battle that ensued.

"So now what do I do?" Tori wanted to know after she had positioned the Storm Megazord next to my Predazord. "Uh Cam, I'm not really sure how everything will work out since I'm the only driver."

"Take the Power Disc I've just sent you and drop it down the hatch so the boys' controls become yours." Cam instructed. "Then do as Laura tells you. Cam out."

"But—"

"Tori, Tori, Tori." I now said. "Relax, chillax. Just knock the Evil Space Alien down with that Blizzard thingy using Dustin's Lion's mane."

"It's something I call Blizzard Fury." Tori snapped back, and used the ripcord before aiming the spinning mane at me. She then ripped again when Zurgane called me an 'frozen animal ice cube' to aim the attack at him. "Because I'm furious right now. Listen here, buddy, nobody is allowed to make fun of Laura but us Wind Rangers. That's it, you're through ruining my day."

"Wow Tor, you sure seem pissed." I said, and watched as Zurgane suddenly got up and began blasting the Storm Megazord with large red bullet-like missiles. It didn't target the Predazord, and for that I was grateful, but unfortunately this meant Tori received quite a beating. After she had fallen, Zurgane hungrily closed in for the kill, heedless to the cries of Dustin and Shane as they screamed her name from the ground.

Time seemed to slow down as Zurgane's Megazord grabbed the Storm Megazord and lifted it off the ground. Tori gasped as he did this, but managed to press the button on her control stick just in time to push the bad guy back with a Dolphin Blast, which was really little lasers that came out of the Dolphin's eyes. She then fell into position, and I moved the Predazord so that it was once more by her side.

"Who do you think you are?" Zurgane wanted to know as we both started stomping toward him. On the ground, Shane and Dustin began to fight harder than they had ever fought so far in their Ranger careers, for they were all motivated, coincidentally all at once, by Cam's haunting message of 'Please find my father'.

"I'm a big fish with an attitude, that's who." Tori answered, then stopped abruptly while I charged forward to hit the Zurganezord with the Wolf and Hammerhead's heads simultaneously. When it tried to aim those laser missiles at me, hoping to do the same thing it had just done to Tori, my Megazord instinctively flew into the air and landed behind him. Though no longer under the influence of Zen-Aku, the former Dark Wild Zords still remembered the old Org's moves, and for that I was grateful.

"So, now what?" Zurgane asked us. "It's your move, Rangers. Bring it."

"Yes, here's our chance!" I shouted to Tori at once, and she smirked back. With visors retracted, I could see what she was probably thinking. Zurgane could too, but thank God he was too happy to care that he was about to be fried. In fact, I don't even think he noticed he had unknowingly surrendered by stopping in his tracks and inviting us to use him as a punching bag.

"Of course. A Megazord is nothing without accessories." Here Tori dropped Power Spheres 5 & 6 down the hatch to release the Lion Laser and Squid Drill, which she combined to create the Turbine Combo.

"A Megazord is nothing without a big staff." I added, and yelped when the Wild Zords abruptly came to life. The Alligator suddenly raised its head and roared, as if preparing to launch the Predator Wave, while the Hammerhead growled loudly. It would have roared too, but dropping the staff would have been a stupid thing to do. "What? Did I say something offending?"

"May I remind you that 90 of that staff you claim is an essential accessory to this Megazord my brothers and I have formed for your convenience is my tail?" The Alligator asked. No, it didn't speak in English, but I could understand it and this is what it told me.

"And 10 of the staff is mine?" The Hammerhead pointed out. "We never get any credit around here. Every time you guys claim _you_ won a battle, when really it was us Zords who did most of the work. Try to remember that we're not entirely machines like those crappy Storm Zords. We're living beings."

"Yeah, okay, but could you guys now try to remember that there's a big bad general in front of us who needs to be blown up?" Here I pointed at Zurgane. "Hello? We're battling here! Try to focus, all of you."

"Whatever." Said the Alligator, and snapped back into its usual spot.

"I so need a good bath after this." Said the Hammerhead.

"And I've got a 3 o clock appointment with the Red Lion, so let's make this quick." Wolf added. "Revolver Phantom positions, everybody."

Seconds later, Zurganezord blew up, and we all began celebrating our latest victory.

But Sensei was not yet won. Just when Shane announced that he had gotten hold of our teacher Hunter fired at the reunited Winds with his Crimson Blaster—getting his little brother caught in the flames as well—before retrieving the Sphere and jogging off with it. Wolf Zord instantly lunged as they retreated, but as his huge jaws came down to pick the Thunders up by their collars they zapped him with their elemental powers before disappearing with a loud crack.

"Man, I can't stand those guys!" Shane then yelled.

"I know what you mean." I heard Wolf agree as he used his paw to rub his lower jaw. "They might not have been powerful to me, but I can see why they're so annoying. That lightning bolt hurt!"

Time was running out, so Shane, Tori, Dustin and I ran as fast as our little ninja legs could carry us through the narrow corridors inside the Cavern of Souls. There were many routes we could take, as tunnels often branched off into three different paths, if not more, but with the help of Cam's Handy Path Finder gizmo, finding the Thunder Brothers was a breeze. Thankfully, we reached the two just in time. Any later, and Hunter would have smashed the Gem of Souls on Sensei, thus fulfilling his goal. As leader, Shane was the first to cry out.

"Stop!" he cried out as we charged into the room with looks of panic on our faces, and Hunter's arm froze, much to our relief. He then made lowering motions with his right arm while asking the Crimson Thunder Ranger to put the Gem back where he had found it. "Put it down." To my surprise, Shane then looked at me out of the corners of his eyes and mouthed 'A little help here'.

"Oh, now the great fearless leader is asking me for help?" I replied with a smirk. "Very well, let me through, let me through." Here I pushed Tori and Dustin aside. "Now Hunter, do as Shane says. Put it down, and nobody gets hurt."

"Why should we believe you? Lothor told us everything." Hunter snarled. Beside him, Blake took a step forward.

"Yeah." Added the Navy Ranger with malice in his voice. "Your Sensei destroyed our parents."

I groaned, then slapped my forehead in exasperation. "Dude, Sensei didn't do anything. So could we all please bury the hatchet and start anew? Like, hi, I'm Laura and this is Shane—OW!" While trying to introduce the Wind Rangers, Blake abruptly kicked me hard in the stomach with his dirt covered boot, knocking me back into the arms of the Blue and Yellow Wind Rangers. "Okay, Plan Laura failed. (This kind of plan, coincidentally, would be modified into Plan Xander three years down the road.) Ooh, my stomach…I may have to sit out the next 20 battles…"

"No, you do not." Shane hissed, and his friends all yelled 'no' at the same time when they saw Hunter raise his arm in an attempt to kill Sensei again after proclaiming we were done talking. Luckily, somebody was watching us, because as we protested this inhumane treatment of human turned guinea pig, two ghost like figures appeared before the brothers.

"Put it down, Hunter." A male voice boomed, and the ghost on the left proceeded to remove his hood.

"Who are you?" Blake wanted to know, but Hunter was able to accurately identify his parents.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Mr. Bradley?" This was Shane, who was stunned to see this startling development.

"Mrs. Bradley?" Tori too sounded shocked.

"Dude!" As usual Dustin couldn't think up a better word.

"Cripes!" I said.

"This is the Mountain of Lost Ninjas." The Thunder's dad continued. "We'll be here for all eternity."

"Because of him, right?" Blake wanted to know, but his mother shook her head in disagreement. "No, Blake. He's not responsible for what happened to us."

"Well then, who is?" Hunter demanded, and after his father had started with the words 'the one they call' the Winds and I shouted out Lothor's name with him while giving the 'duh' looks to the Thunders. But their mother told them not to feel too bad, then added that she and her husband would always be looking after them from the spirit world. The two parents then began to fade, much to their sons' dismay, but the brief period of mourning was suddenly cut short when Lothor suddenly came in looking quite pleased with himself. On the other hand, Blake and Hunter were none too pleased to see him, and neither were we Winds. Almost everyone dropped into fighting stances upon seeing him.

"What a sight." The evil ninja laughed as he brushed us all aside to stand in the center of the room. "The Thunder Rangers crying for their mommy. My ears are burning. You all have been talking about me, haven't you?"

"It was you all along!" Hunter immediately cried out, and pointed an accusing finger at the man who had caused him and his brother much grief over the past couple of months. "You lied to us."

"Not the brightest bulbs on the tree, now, are you?" Lothor answered. "Now give me the hamster. We got business to attend to."

"Hamster?" Dustin was confused when he heard this. "Actually dude, he's a guinea pig."

"And we're not giving him to you." Shane added harshly.

"Then I'll take him." Here Lothor marched forward to grab his brother, but found out his access was denied the hard way when we all surged forward simultaneously to hamper his progress. Coincidentally, the Thunders and I formed the front row, and the Winds protected their teacher by forming the second row. "By all that's bad in the Matrix, you Rangers are sure persistent."

"Yeah, hello, do you not notice there's lots of us and one of you?" Tori asked him.

"Oh please!" As he said this Lothor fired a red beam from his palm at us, but Hunter quickly rolled forward to intercept the beam using the Gem of Souls so the villain would be zapped away. One bright beam of green light later, we peeked at the Gem to find it broken in five pieces. Still, the aura surrounding them felt powerful, so we turned to Sensei for advice .

"For better or for worse," Sensei noted, "the power of the Gem cannot be destroyed."

"And speaking of power, what happened to Lothor?" Tori wanted to know. In response, I gulped loudly.

"Ah…" I faltered for a moment before Sensei's little head bob gave me enough encouragement to continue. "Lothor may be very much alive, and by the looks of things, I think he's got a friend with him now. When I heard him say something about the Matrix, I thought about Master Org. If the two of them has indeed teamed up, then I believe we're in hot water."

"How hot would you say that water is?" Dustin inquired, and I let out a nervous chuckle.

"Well, picture all of us bathing in a tub of boiling oil."

"Ouch."

To make the long story short, Hunter took me out on one last date at the _Lotus Garden _restaurant before announcing he and Blake needed to get out of town to seek redemption for being bad boys under the influence of Lothor and his evil twisted brain. After leaning in for a kiss (and ending up smooching Dilly instead (1)), the two of us separated, but not before promising to reunite as soon as the brothers returned to Blue Bay Harbor, if they did come full circle. As they headed for the mountains, Blake asked Hunter how long they would be gone, and his brother shrugged in response.

"Why, do you have a reason to come back?"

Blake nodded as he started adjusting the straps on his navy rucksack. "Yeah. We both do."

(1) Blake snuck into the restaurant to find out why his bro never showed up at the motocross track with Dustin a day after our Cavern of Spirits adventure and saw Hunter kissing me for the first time. Unable to withstand the love in the air, and sick of hearing the waiter next to him humming 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' by the podium near the entrance, he asked Dilly to put himself between us, and the Armadillo agreed. After closing our eyes to lean in for Kiss #2, Dilly jumped up onto the table and put his snout where our lips would normally meet. Thus, we opened our eyes at the moment of contact to find we had just kissed a soccer ball sized Wild Zord instead of each other! This resulted in a peeved Hunter, a disgusted me, and an amused Blake, who had caught the moment on camera.


	9. Nowhere to Grow

Nowhere to Grow

"Paint!" shrieked the librarian when she noticed that a large replica of the Tiger Wild Zord crouching by the entrance to the conference room in the library had been splattered with blue paint by a 8 year old boy wearing a Gundam Wing T-shirt and blue jeans a tad too big for him. "Jonathan, how could you! Is this how you show respect to the former Power Ranger who will be coming here in 5 minutes to tell a story to Mrs. Jones' Fourth Grade class?"

"Sorry Mommy, but I was bored." Jonathan answered as he put down the now empty paint canister. "You know I hate reading books. They're all boring, even with the pictures. I wanted…well…"

"A bit of fun, huh, young man?"

"Yes Mommy."

"Goodness!" Mrs. Bloom threw up her hands in exasperation when she realized there was absolutely no way the Tiger Zord could be repainted white, black, and pink before my former teammate Alyssa Enrile came to greet the assembled crowd of kindergarten kids and their parents. "What in the world can I do now? My reputation will be ruined for sure…"

"I wouldn't say that." I said, and clapped my hands. Janitors standing by the entrance to the library basement then opened the door and proceeded to replace the damaged cardboard tiger with a inflatable Wild Force Megazord balloon. All color then drained from Mrs. Bloom's face when she saw this cheap replacement, and some kids watching the janitors started roaring with laughter. The entrance was no longer guarded by an impressive statue, and even I ended up giving the librarian a sympathetic wince, but it was now too late to change anything. Seconds after the Tiger Zord had been dismantled and shoved out of sight, Alyssa herself entered the main lobby and caught sight of this bizarre balloon attached to the doorknob of the conference room.

"Oh, hello Alyssa." I said cheerfully, before grabbing Jonathan's arm and yanking him over to the former White Ranger. "This is Jonathan, and he will show you where you will stand for the next two hours. As you can probably tell, the kids are all eager to hear your story about the Animarium."

"Yes, of course," Alyssa answered with a small smile, "but where is my Tiger? People told me they had made a replica of her and…" here I saw her eyes beginning to water, "I wanted to see her."

"Unfortunately there was an…accident." I said after a moment's pause. Beside me, Mrs. Bloom started babbling apologies under her breath, while Jonathan pushed a janitor aside so he could fetch the head of the cardboard Zord, which, to Alyssa's shock, had been splattered with blue paint. "It was that kid who did it. I'm sorry, I was his babysitter and I shouldn't have stuck my head in _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire _while he was performing this dastardly deed. Please forgive him, and me."

Alyssa's eyes softened when she heard this, and her hands closed around mine. "I'm not mad." She said softly, then opened her bag to rummage around for something. "By the way, since you and your team of artists worked so hard to build me a replica of the White Tiger, knowing I'll probably never see her again in my life, I stopped by an import store earlier." Here she produced a box wrapped in brown paper, which I immediately ripped open. "Kite met me there and, well, he recommended I get you this."

I smiled, then quickly thanked Alyssa by giving her a very affectionate bone-crushing hug before accepting the bean-bag walrus holding a miniature Coca-Cola bottle.

"You're welcome." Replied my former teammate. "Well, I have a story to tell, so I won't bother you anymore now. Good luck with ninja training, my friend." With that, she disappeared into the room, whose occupants immediately started catcalling, hooting, and clapping. After letting my jaw drop in surprise for a moment (how in the world did Alyssa know I was now a ninja?!), I turned to Jonathan with a toothy grin. He smiled weakly back before I noticed my unusually sharp teeth (Gah, I should stop eating too much meat these days) was scaring his mother and quickly placated both by throwing a Snickers bar at the librarian and a photo of Shane with his face squashed on my window at the boy, who laughed loudly upon seeing the funny face.

When it came down to skateboard practice, Shane was usually eager to show off new moves in public at the local skate park, but for once he insisted it be done around 11 PM at night, when the city park was closed but unguarded. This was not only an unusual idea, but a stupid one as well, so I immediately put my foot down. This did not discourage the teen, and Dustin was quick to tell me the idea would be executed anyway, much to my displeasure. While working the afternoon shift in Storm Chargers with Shane the day the guy intended to disobey my rules, I had the urge to tap him hard on the head with a measuring stick I found on the floor, and would have done it to show him who's boss of the team, if Kelly had not noticed my nasty smile seconds before the stick hit skull. However, I was not to be thwarted, so immediately after work I had the local bakery make a cake with icing that formed the words 'Horrible Hawk' while I asked Tori to come down and deliver the dessert to her friend so the Red Ranger wouldn't link me to the dastardly deed. Yet by the end of the day, both Shane and I were not on speaking terms, and even Sensei couldn't get us back together again.

Florabundacus laughed as she watched Shane angrily bite the head off a marshmallow red hawk that had been stuck to the top of his cake while reading the _Blue Bay Daily_. The Red Ranger's Monster Alarm had been disabled for the day, since he did not appear to be alert nor aware of his surroundings, and this made the female monster very happy. According to her boss Lothor, Rangers rarely let down their guard, and thus, to find an unfocused leader of the Ninja Storm team thinking about getting revenge on his teammate for bringing him a cake featuring a nasty message was a lovely prize indeed. It was also twilight, so visibility would be poor for the teen, and Florabundacus knew this was the perfect time for an attack. However, before she could act, Shane abruptly swallowed the rest of his marshmallow and started walking in the direction of the bush. The Kelzaks, stupid creatures, heard him coming and automatically started squeaking, which gave away their positions.

By peering over the bush, Shane easily spotted the crouching Florabundacus, and all anger dissipated when the Kelzaks dropped their pails, shovels, and seeds to surround him.

"Is this a party?" he asked in with a smirk, and patted his chest. "Man, I'm so bummed because I wasn't invited. First Laura gives me hell with that cake, and now you guys turn me down." Here he pretended to be sad, but only for an instant. "So, since you were all so rude, you mind if I crash?" With that said, he lashed out at the nearest Kelzak and kicked it down before punching the daylights out of the others. "Man, that was easy. All right, Monster of the Day, you're next!"

"The name's Florabundacus." The monster answered in a high-pitched voice, and she stepped back a little when Shane yelled 'Ninja Storm, Ranger Form' to become the Red Wind Ranger. But she was not entirely afraid of the leader of the team, and with her pollen she managed to send him in a sneezing fit. Quickly the Red Ranger retracted his visor so he wouldn't sneeze into his helmet, but that just made him more vulnerable to the pollen, and before long he was kneeling on the ground with a pair of red eyes and brilliant red nose. "Now you know my pollen's something to sneeze at…OUCH!" Florabundacus' speech was abruptly cut short when a knife thrown by an unknown assailant cut her wrist. "You idiot, you attacked me! How could you!"

"It wasn't—Achoo!—me." Shane growled as he picked himself off the ground while sneezing every 5 seconds. He then raised a hand to wipe his nose and was surprised to see a tissue suddenly obscure his vision for a moment as someone waved it in his face. "Thanks. I needed that."

"Well, I can't help but apologize for being so mean to you." I said, and upon recognizing my voice Shane angrily started ranting about how mean the message on the cake had been, while I buried my head in my horse's mane and tried hard to hide a sheepish grin. "Anyway, if you're done with that outburst of yours, could you please start ranting on how bad my aim was?"

"Bad? That wasn't bad. Where did you learn that? That was awesome, dude."

"Thanks. Just so you know, I happened to learn shuriken basics long before you pipsqueaks came along." I answered with a grin from atop Silver Moon.

"Oh no, you did not just call me, Tori, and Dustin pipsqueaks." Shane replied, before I grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face the monster. "Right, right, we must get rid of this guy first."

"Get rid of me?" Florabundacus asked, and 'leafed' before we could charge at her. When Shane responded to this by thrusting his sword into the ground in front of him, I casually whipped out a potted plant I had hidden in my saddlebag.

"Want a Venus Flytrap, Shane dear? It would look great in your bedroom."

Silence. And then I was answered with a sarcastic reply that reminded me of Cam and his cynical remarks. "Sure, why not? Rub my defeat into my face, why don't you, by giving me a plant that looks like that monster I couldn't kill."

"Oh Shane, don't be mad. Come and take your skateboard, and we'll talk while you show me how many new tricks you've learned."

"Neigh!" Silver Moon agreed, and as the moon started to rise the three of us rode, or skated, down the path that led to the center of the park where our conversation could be continued in private.

It was 11 PM at night when Silver Moon abruptly yawned and made it clear that it was time to cut the conversation short and go back to Ninja Ops. Feeling a bit sleepy myself, I closed my eyes in an effort to concentrate on staying awake just a bit longer until we got back to base, but ended up snoring softly seconds later. Shane gawked, for he wasn't quite sure how I could sleep in a position like this, and fall asleep that fast too. Then he realized it meant my incessant apologies would cease until the next morning, and chuckled to himself. At that moment a thought passed through his head and he wondered if this was the perfect opportunity to do something cruel and wicked of his own. However, all thoughts of getting revenge on a unsuspecting Lunar Wolf Ranger vanished when his morpher started emitting that annoying beep and Cam's voice came through the speakers.

"Shane, you there? My father would like a word with you, if you don't mind."

"Be right there Cam." Shane answered. After putting down the potted Venus Flytrap, he gently began prying my hands off Silver Star's reins. Once in full control of the horse, he carefully got up behind me and patted the horse's neck. "Okay, let's go home buddy." Seconds later, both riders and horse had ninja streaked out of the park.

I was still snoring softly when Shane got us all back home, but a little conk on the head by a guinea pig who suddenly had the idea to tap my head hard with his bamboo stick caused me to jump up, fall off Silver Star, and land on the fresh hay in her stall. It was a painful landing, but the injuries were not serious and I walked out with a few minor bruises.

"Ugh…man, I swear my head will never be the same again. Did you _have_ to do that, Sensei? I mean, you could have caused me to hit my head on the rafters or something and get a even nastier bump."

"I am sorry, Laura, but there is something you and the others must know before we all turn in for the night. Please understand that."

"Uh-huh. So what's the big i—yawn—dea?"

"Look." Sensei pointed at two seeds about the length of a IPod lying on his portable habitat. "These seeds were found on the site of the battle between Florabundacus and Shane. Since you studied Botany with our Earth Sensei a year ago, shall I assume you know a bit about this type of plant?"

I looked, then asked Cam to fetch a pencil. He did, with a skeptical look on his face, as if unsure how a pencil could help us get some answers. Without further ado I stabbed the seeds with the writing implement, and regretted doing this almost instantly. For as soon as the outer shell was ruptured both seeds started giving off an offensive smell. It was so bad, even the horses started blowing their noses hard in their sleep, while Sensei simply said 'phew!' as he waved his little paw in front of his twitchy nose. Beside me, a patch of grass hiding a little plastic rabbit with a Easter egg between its paws wilted.

"Ack, forget Botany. I call this plant the 'Stinky Bomb'. No questions asked." Hearing this, Shane snickered, but Cam and Sensei were not amused.

"Well, that's nice." Cam answered in a sarcastic voice. "Good one, Laura. Now we call see how pathetic you are."

"Oh, shut up." I retorted, before asking Sensei if he himself had the answer.

"No, but I have an acquaintance, Dr. Belrab, who is an expert on exotic plants. You must gather the others, Shane, and meet him tomorrow at his botanical laboratory outside of town."

Shane bowed to acknowledge the new mission before waving a hand at me. "Can she go too?"

"Of course. I want all Rangers involved. Cam will stay behind—"

"But why can't I go?" His son immediately protested upon realizing that he would be the only one left behind. "This may require someone who actually has a clue about botany."

"So you want to help. But I assure you that help is always there for the Rangers when they need it the most, so please be careful how you choose to get involved. Dismissed." With that, Sensei turned the cart around to let us know that he wasn't in the mood to talk any longer. After bowing toward his corner of Ninja Ops, I yawned, grabbed Shane's shoulder, and told him to 'throw me home'.

And throw he did. Seconds later Shane ninja streaked, with me in his arms, into the residence hall in the Blue Bay University campus. After receiving permission to enter my dorm, he then tossed me onto the lower bunk bed before turning off all the lights in the room. One more yawn later, I was fast asleep, and Hannah groaned when she realized that there was absolutely no way she could stay up to 2 AM studying for her Biology test now that the 'rude boy' had plunged the room into darkness.

"I'm surprised Laura knew that the 'Stinky Bomb' was related to the Venus Flytrap." Dr. Belrab said as he adjusted his glasses and squinted down at the large mystery seed he was now holding in his hands. Cam had knocked on his door 10 minutes earlier to have a cup of coffee and present the botanist with the mystery seeds and the Venus Flytrap I had brought for Shane. "But yes, this is a kind of flower which, to our relief, is relatively harmless despite being labeled as having an 'aggressive' nature. You see, it can't devour anything in its path yet, nor can it grow to a monstrous size, because it has to be nourished with water that has what some may call a 'kick' to it."

"I think we may have a problem anyway."

"Oh, don't fret. It's really quite harmless, unless you dunk it in the special nutrient bath I've just described. Stop worrying or you'll end up having strands of white hair long before you reach 20."

Cam smirked. "I'm already over the age of twenty, doctor."

"Oh. Right, right…these days I can hardly tell the ages of kids. My eyesight's not as good as it used to be, I'm afraid. My bad."

"So…where can one find this water, if you don't mind me asking?" Cam wanted to know as he poured himself another cup of coffee. The caffeine from the first one had not quite yet woken him up completely, and he had gotten only five hours of precious sleep last night due to the late-night conversation we had had with Sensei. Thus, this morning he was a tad crankier than usual.

"There's a volcanic spring to the north of here and—"

"You're talking about Turner Springs!"

"Yes, yes, I am. The trek's too dangerous to make often though, and besides, to do an experiment with this water here in my lab may have disastrous consequences, not to mention I've got giant corns to worry about." Here, he waved a hand to show that they had been talking in front of 3 50 feet tall giant corns the entire time.

"Ah…ha, ha, yes…very good." Cam said nervously, and quickly exited the laboratory while his head was still trying to make sense of the literal picture of giant corns. "Wow, that was…unexpected. Time to head out." With that, he pulled out a compass to determine where north was before walking away from the lab. As he disappeared into the bushes behind the greenhouse, he was unaware that the three Wind Rangers were watching him atop Tori's van with binoculars in their hands and interested looks upon their faces.

An argument quickly ensued, as the Rangers squabbled for the 'Volunteer to Ask Dr. Belrab' job. No-one could agree on who was going to trail Cam and who would be paying a visit to the botanist, and it's certain they would have gone on arguing all morning, had I not suddenly turned up with Desert Storm and told Dustin to go in with Tori, since it was his horse who had given me a ride this beautiful morning anyway. I then sent Shane to keep an eye on Cam, with strict instructions about when and how to approach the Sensei's son should the need for confrontation arise, before taking Tori's car keys away so I could drive out of town to meet and greet a bunch of strange ninjas who claimed they could control the element of fire.

While Shane ran off in Cam's direction, Dustin took up Desert Storm's reins and motioned for Tori to follow him into the lab. Together, they cautiously stepped into the greenhouse while making sure they were well aware of their surroundings, so that if an evil space ninja happened to be in the vicinity they could easily defend themselves. After crossing countless rows of strange plants and flowers with interesting scents, they stopped in front of two very familiar looking lab assistants making a fuss over a orange flower with odd looking petals.

"I know who you are--!" Tori burst out seconds after she laid eyes on them thanks to the disguise penetrating training I had given her over the course of the last few weeks, but before she could enlighten Dustin, Marah abruptly squeezed the blossom she had been admiring, releasing the pollen in the process and causing the Rangers to fall into a deep sleep.

"And that is how one takes care of menaces like the Power Rangers." Kapri announced proudly as she began to tie the two up with the vines Florabundacus had left behind under the table earlier that day. "Good job Marah, you knocked them out beautifully."

"Yes, take care of these sleeping beauties while I tend to my children." Florabundacus added as she abruptly appeared next to Lothor's nieces in a whirlwind of pollen, and headed for the stairs that led to the basement. Once there, she began her 'Destroy Humans Using Plants' rant, before urging her plants to grow faster so they could have the entire city trapped in vines by evening.

"Ah, here we are." Cam announced as he dipped a tiny glass vial into Turner Springs to extract a bit of water for his little 'Let's Grow the Monster Plant Accidentally And Wreck Ninja Ops' experiment. He didn't know it, but above him Shane was watching him while sharing a branch with a disgruntled squirrel eating its brunch. Though Shane didn't move, nor try to upset the creature, the squirrel wasn't used to having a human take up almost its entire favorite branch (Shane was lying down on it at the moment), but it couldn't move its entire meal away lest the hawk in the nearby tree decide to pounce on him. With Shane around, the hawk didn't dare have a snack, because it was afraid the teen might try to scare him off. Safe, but still very disgruntled, the squirrel occasionally stopped munching to throw its leftovers at our Red Ranger.

Below the tree, Cam was getting ready to leave. He just finished stuffing all his stuff back into his backpack when the Kelzaks jumped out of the bushes surrounding him and attacked. Fearing for Cam's safety, as he was not yet a Ranger, Shane quickly leapt off the branch, shaking half of the squirrel's remaining meal onto the ground in the process, and joined his mentor's son in battle. The Kelzaks were soon disposed of with a few well placed kicks and punches, allowing Shane to follow my directions to the letter and interrogate Cam. However, Cam would not reveal any answers. He simply told Shane that he himself would explain the situation to his father before storming off. Shane sighed, then made a mental note to tell me my plan had not produced the desired results.

"Mission failed." He muttered while taking one last look at the Springs. Just before he ninja streaked off to hide from my wrath in Storm Chargers, the angry squirrel managed to hit his head with its final acorn, leaving behind a small bump that would nevertheless be noticed and laughed at for a week. "And to top it off, I was defeated by a squirrel. How nice."

"And that's very good, for a beginner." Said Albert when I demonstrated how to summon a ball of fire from out of thin air for his friends and Sensei. It was supposed to have been a private training session, but word had spread fast, so our lesson was frequently interrupted by cheers, jeers, and wise advice. Now that I understood the basics, Albert told me, next week we could do something much more complicated with fire.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you next Monday then." I said to him, and began walking back to Tori's van accompanied by a blue jay who, though afraid of flame, had been curious enough to stay and watch me try out my new skills. "But wait! What's this I smell? Somebody's got pepper on him!"

"It's just my salt and pepper beef!" A blonde girl cried out, and I got a good view of her lunch when she held it out so everyone could see what she was eating. "Want to try one?"

"Er, not today, but thank you for your kind offer." I answered, before turning to the instructor, who was stroking his long white beard while reciting Chinese poetry in a voice so soft I could barely hear what he was saying. A bow got his attention, and he waved me away with a smile on his face. I smiled back, only to be presented with the beef again. "Ahem. I just said I wasn't in the mood for—ACHOO!"

"Eek!" Shrieked the girl, who immediately dropped the beef, which was, to my surprise, now on the ground smoking and looking quite black. The blue jay screeched as it flew away, apparently startled by the sight before it. "You burnt it!"

"I what?" I asked in surprise, and a boy named Zachary pointed out smoke was coming out of my mouth. Horrified, I used one of the Water techniques I had learned at the Wind Ninja Academy to create a ball of water in my palm so I could see my own reflection. "GAH! I can't be breathing fire! That's technically impossible!"

"Yes, it is, but this is quite…interesting, I must say." Said the Sensei. "I would be delighted to study you further, Laura."

I fumed when I heard the word 'study', because I didn't like the idea of becoming a human experiment, but gave my permission. "F-Fine. You can think of me as the 'human dragon' if you want. However, could we not meet too many times after Monday? Lothor thinks he's already destroyed everybody at the Ignis Ninja Academy and we can't have him spying on us from his spaceship…you never know what might happen if he finds out there were survivors."

"Of course, of course. Now go, child. There appears to be trouble in the city, and you may be needed."

"Trouble? Ah, dang it. Every time I leave the Winds alone they always leave behind some crazy mess. A mess which _I_, not Sensei, has to clean up." Quickly I started the engine and put my foot down on the pedal. "Gotta go, then! See you later, old geezer!"

Meanwhile, Cam was busy fighting a baby Sudima plant inside Ninja Ops with one hand while typing on the computer with the other.

"Shane, Laura, come in!" he shouted. "Dustin and Tori are in trouble! The parent plant's got them in its vines and they can't break free."

"How do you propose we break the vines?" Shane asked, and Cam turned his chair around so he could attempt to unwrap a vine from around Blazing Lion's neck before the poor stallion choked to death. "Uh…you okay over there Cam? You sound like you're in trouble."

"Yes, I'm okay." Cam grunted as he pried the last of the vine off the horse before returning to his seat. His father cried out behind him, begging for help, but the son was too busy typing on the keyboard to notice. "We had a situation involving a nearly dead horse, but that's taken care of for the time being. Now, draw your sword, wait a few seconds while I upload this power up, and start slashing away."

"Why can't I use my Hawk Blaster? I could probably fry that thing now."

"No, you can't, because its vines are too thick and it can regenerate really easily. I just broke a vine trying to save Blazing Lion and it regrew faster than you could say 'dang'. Download complete, you go try it out now."

"Great." As Cam watched, Shane then leapt into the air repeating 'she loves me, she loves me not' as he sliced the giant destructive flower into pieces. Seconds after the flower exploded a car suddenly came out of thin air and I stepped out with a flustered expression on my face. "Oh, hello Laura. Nice of you to ah, streak by."

I laughed at this before helping the others get back on their feet. "Gee, thanks. Now, it's time to kick some petals around! Who's with me?"

"I am!" As usual Dustin was enthusiastic about fighting evil space ninjas. "By the way, dude, you have _got_ to show me how to streak while driving a car, it sounds awesome."

"Maybe some other time. Wild Access!"

"And here we go again." Tori mumbled when Florabundacus abruptly stomped into view to complain we had killed her baby. Since I was in the front of the group, she chose to charge at me first, but I suddenly ninja streaked away, leaving behind a horse sized wolf dummy behind me. Then, while Florabundacus still looked shocked, Shane used the wolf dummy as a launching pad so he could leap into the air and perform a spectacular Ninja Air Assault on the monster, who screeched in pain as the sword broke the vines attached to her body.

"How can that toothpick hurt me?" She screeched while blowing pollen at the Wind Rangers, who rolled out of the way to escape her attack. "You can't possibly…"

"That would be because it's a ninja sword and weed whacker! It's an all in one deal I couldn't refuse, so I brought it!" Shane shouted back at her, and took out his personalized weapon. "All right, Storm Striker positions, people! Hawk Blaster goes in front today!"

"Storm Striker, fire!" the trio soon hollered seconds later, and Florabundacus screamed loudly as she exploded.

"And now, let's bring out the Megazord!" I called out in my best announcer's voice, as the Rangers started forming the Storm Megazord. Since the role of commentator could tire me out quickly, and my voice didn't sound right thanks to the helmet, I quickly demorphed. "Actually, it's the Storm Megazord Lightning Mode we're gonna be watching today, folks! I wonder what attacks they plan to do…OH! Florabundacus looks shocked! The Rangers have created a ramp, and now the Megazord is rolling down it at a speed that could put my Wolf Zord to shame! Ah! They hit, and Florabundacus is sent flying! What a spectacular move, and crash too! I can't believe my ears, and I've got such sensitive ones. Now, let's see what the Rangers will do next! Oh, it's the Blizzard Flurry, and Florabundacus hates the cold! Hear how loudly she shrieks as Dustin's Lion Zord freezes her! And finally, we see the Serpent Sword being brought out of Power Sphere #1 just for the fun of it, since the Rangers love doing multiplication! One slash, and yes, the Rangers win! Oh, what a spectacular move! Join us next time for a—What?" My morpher suddenly went off at this time, which ruined the commentary.

"Laura?" It was Shane.

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Whatever. Dustin?"

"Glad you asked! If you come up here to stand by us, you can probably see my house from here!"

"And thus, for staying up so late and engaging Florabundacus in combat without notifying me, the others, or Cam, you and Laura are to be punished." Said Sensei to Shane when we finally returned to Ninja Ops soon after the battle. "Ten mile jog, please."

"But!" I cried out, and Sensei's fur suddenly started smoking, much to the shock of the others. "Oh shoot! I let my emotions carry me away again. Sorry Sensei!"

Sensei's only response with a stern expression, which caused me to kneel before him and kowtow 4 times, but the apology was not enough, for he decided to extend the punishment. "15 mile jog please, both of you. And Laura, though I may not be able to rid you of this fiery new ability, learn that some outbursts are probably best kept to yourself. We cannot have Ninja Ops burning down because of your hot temper."

"Yes Sensei." With that said, I grabbed Shane's hand and together we headed out the door to brave the cold wind blowing outside.


End file.
